High density carbon adsorbent composite

Claim 1

A process for producing an adsorbent composite having a minimum specific gravity of about 2.0 consisting essentially of substrate particle at least substantially encapsulated with activated carbon, said activated carbon having a minimum surface area of about 200 square meters per gram and being adherently bonded to said substrate particle, which consists essentially of providing a substrate particle having a minimum specific gravity of about 2.0 and a particle size ranging from about 100 Angstroms to about 10 millimeters in diameter, providing an organic material which is a solid at room temperature and which at a temperature ranging from about 50° C. to about 1000° C. at atmospheric pressure decomposes to yield elemental carbon and gaseous product of decomposition, admixing a plurality of said substrate particles with said organic material to form a substantially uniform mixture, heating said mixture in a substantially oxygen-free atmosphere to decompose said organic material yielding elemental carbon and gaseous product of decomposition, and grinding the resulting carbon-substrate particle mass to produce said composite of a predetermined size ranging from about one micron to about 10 millimeters in diameter.