CARVOC wants to solve the social, environmental and economic problem that represents the emission of VOC/TIC to the atmosphere through the development of innovative activated carbon filters (ACF) based on activated carbons (AC) produced from natural wastes, capable of adsorbing VOC/TIC emitted by highly pollutant industries or that may be released in industrial accidents or in terrorist attacks. The resulting ACF will be primarily integrated into industrial filtering systems and personal protection equipments but may be included in all products whose purpose is the VOC purification. One of the project's goals is to decrease global air pollution.

The wastes to be used for R&D of AC are the hemp residues from farming and industrial processing. They are a particularly suitable and novel raw material since hemp represents a sustainable crop with beneficial environmental characteristics not offered by other plants and it has many advantages for the preparation of AC mainly, large amounts of hemp residues are generated and its high carbon content. Different methods for the activation of the residues will be used for preparing AC with a suitable porous texture for gas and vapor phase pollutant abatement. There will be selected the most frequent and harmful VOC for the environment and with the greatest toxicity for Humans and Ecosystems.

Adsorption tests will be carried out with the selected VOC, to determine the adsorption capacity of the AC towards those compounds, both in mixture or separately and, to evaluate the performance of the materials obtained. In CARVOC the SMEs will benefit from the R&D conducted by the RTDs, because it will be obtained an ACF with improved structural and functional features to existing AC on the market since it will be produced from a new precursor, hemp fiber, and will be specifically activated for the purification of VOC. Moreover CARVOC will help to reduce the current 26% AC imports rate by producing a competitive AC made of hemp wastes.

CARVOC is an interdisciplinary project involving aspects related to appreciation of natural wastes, gas treatment systems for the VOC purification, development of activated carbons from natural waste, carbonaceous materials, VOC abatement, VOC adsorption and development of different forms of synthetic carbon and filter systems. In order to achieve the overall goal of the project, correct communication between the different partners of such project is necessary as well as a coordinated and well-structured work plan. For this purpose, 7 work packages have been designed, each of them led by the most experienced partner in the corresponding field of work. Goals have been set for each work package, as well as different tasks and the associated deliverables.