Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) & Activated Carbon Question

Hi,

I have a question for those of you who really understand activated charcoal/carbon.

I'm testing some activated carbon to see if it can remove Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from the air (industrial cleansers, paint and carpet off-gassing, basement mold odors, etc.). I'm using two heavy duty Honeywell Enviracaire air cleaners, model 63200 (please see attachments). They are CPZ units (CPZ stands for Charcoal, Potassium Permanganate, and Zeolite). Each has an internal canister which is basically a metal basket with pencil-lead size holes. When full, they weigh approximately 6 lbs. Since the original CPZ mix was aged and musty, I refilled them with fresh Aqua Pure High Density Carbon (activated Bituminous coal charcoal granules) Mesh 8x30. (The HEPA filters and the prefilters are new.)

Unfortunately, as a result of the new/fresh activated charcoal, the air cleaners give off an odor I can only describe as smelling like an orange (but not pleasant). Sleeping with them running at night makes me feel ill the next day. So rather than removing VOCs from the air, they contributed to the problem.

Next I ordered a 40 lb. bag of Acid Washed Coconut Shell Activated Carbon, Mesh 8x30. Here too, the results were the same.

Question: Why would “pure high density” activated charcoal granules cause this offensive "orange" type odor while the carbon mix in the original CPZ cartridges (which contained Coconut shell charcoal) apparently did not? (The original mix must've been free of odor for who would buy an air cleaner that stinks up a house?) Charcoal is supposed to remove Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), not stink up the air.

At any rate, I don't know why this is happening nor what the workaround is. Any suggestions as to what I can do to get the units to produce clean, fresh smelling air and to remove VOCs would be greatly appreciated.

Best regards,

Paul Tweet