Activated carbon is the oldest, and probably the safest, form of liquid purification technology. It dates back to the earliest biblical recordings of beer and wine making, where it was used to improve the flavor. And, activated carbon is so safe, you can actually eat it in small quantities without any harmful effects!
An activated carbon prefilter can effectively remove chlorine and many of its compounds, along with many nonionic organic compounds. The sintered carbon block type of activated carbon prefilter offers the highest capacity, since it has the most surface area. In addition, the water cannot create internal "rivers" and bypass the carbon granules found in other types of carbon filters.
Thus, the second stage of a properly designed laboratory water purification system, should include an activated carbon prefilter unless, of course, the feed water to the system has already been pretreated via a "house" DI system, or a reverse osmosis pretreatment system, which has its own activated carbon prefilter.
