In researching which activated charcoal (carbon) to use for recharging the canister in my 911, I discovered that there are countless products which are termed "activated carbon". It turns out that each has been designed and manufactured for a very specific and intended purpose - whether it be water filtration, fuel emissions, or filtering any number of harmful vapours. Accordingly, each product has its own specific base material (coal, wood, coconut), porosity, shape, and manufacturing processes, etc. The science behind this is overwhelming... and my head was left spinning!
In the end, and to be sure I got the right stuff, I decided to salvage material from a new canister designed for gasoline vapour emissions... this is similar to what I got:
http://www.autozone.com/engine-management/...archText=vc4345Hope that helps.