Excellent filter
According to Prof Peter Hall, he and his colleagues started “playing” with it. At the end of the process they found they had produced high-quality activated carbon for a fraction of the cost of similar materials.
Professor Hall holds up a small plastic vial containing a few grams of marabu carbon. Each tiny shard contains millions of microscopic holes.
“That,” he says, “has a surface area equivalent to the city of Glasgow.” 
It’s a characteristic that makes it an excellent filter. Cuba currently spends millions of dollars importing activated carbon for use in its rum industry. Marabu carbon could do the job instead. The process could also be applied to gin, vodka, whisky – or to produce clean drinking water in the developing world.
But that’s not the half of it. Ground down and mixed with a polymer base, it can be painted onto aluminium to create lightweight electrodes.
Working with colleagues at St Andrews University, the Strathclyde engineers are using them to make cells for lithium-oxygen batteries which are fifteen times thinner and lighter than existing ones. They’re rechargeable and non-toxic.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-16597459
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