Guide to Industrial Air Purification

If the concentrations of VOCs are low, it becomes very expensive to use direct incineration, as in an RTO solution. It is then better to start by concentrating the concentrations of VOCs using zeolite. This means that a smaller airflow needs to be incinerated – making it more financially viable. See our Zeolite Rotor, Fixed Zeolite Bed for VOCs or Fixed Zeolite Bed for heavier hydrocarbons.

If the concentration is very high (above 6–7 g/Nm³), no concentration step is necessary. The entire airflow can instead by incinerated directly using a catalytic incineration system.

If there is a risk that the exhaust air from production contains extremely high concentrations of VOCs – as may be the case in the chemical or pharmaceutical industry – it is not recommended to attach a direct incineration system to the production system due to the risk of explosion. A two-step solution is preferable, where the VOCs are first adsorbed in zeolite in order to separate the incineration from the production process.

Most production facilities have varying airflows and concentrations – making it all the more important to have a purification system that can handle the variation.

Our adaptive zeolite rotor system can handle varying airflows in a more cost-effective manner compared to other purification systems.

We always tailor our purification systems to the conditions for best economy and function.

High boiling components and other complex hydrocarbons, such as plastic smoke, styrene and fumes from vulcanization processes, usually appear in low concentrations. It is financially preferable to concentrate these airflows prior to incineration. These volatile substances do, however, require high temperatures to release from the adsorbent. Zeolite is very resistant to heat and regenerates completely in our systems, making it an appropriate choice for these kinds of emissions.

See our Fixed Zeolite Bed for heavier hydrocarbons.

Emissions released during production which cannot be caught using the purification airflow are known as diffuse emissions. The diffuse emissions can have an impact on the working environment of your employees. This is not just a health and safety issue however, businesses and authorities have started to put more focus on this as a environmental and emissions related issue.

Diffuse emissions are a common problem in the print and packaging industry as it is difficult to completely encapsulate a printing press. Our zeolite rotor’s ability to economically handle a larger exhaust airflow allows you to catch more of the VOCs in and around the printing press, which lowers the risk of diffuse emissions.

Catalytic incineration occurs at lower temperatures than thermal incineration, which results in lower operating costs as well as a lower heat load on the equipment.

The incineration is the purification phase that has the largest impact on operating cost.

These systems of ours often or always uses catalytical incineration

• Zeolite Rotor
• Fixed Zeolite Bed for VOCs
• Catalytic recuperative incineration

With our zeolite rotor system, it is easy to recycle the energy from the VCOs to further reduce the total operating costs. This is possible thanks to the concentration step coupled with recuperative catalytic incineration.

Many of our customers use the surplus heat to warm their facilities.

Some production facilitates, such as printing houses, can also use the hot airflow directly in their drying process.

There are different requirements for purification rate depending on the type of production and emissions. We adjust the purification rate based on the requirements in order to strike a good balance between the purification rate and operating cost.

Availability concerns the percentage of production time during which the purification is working as intended. It is often included in environmental requirements from authorities. Naturally, we measure the availability of all our purification systems. In the majority of cases, the rate is above 99 %.

Many of our customers who replaced their old purification systems with our zeolite-based purification solutions report that there are now fewer costly production stoppages related to air purification.

If your production is up and running 24/7, it is important that the system’s start and stop times are short.

Start and stop times are also important for operations that shut down, for example during nights or weekends. This is due to unnecessary expenditures from keeping the purification system active even when the production has been halted.

Our systems have a very short start-up time, which cuts down the time required for any maintenance. Our system takes approximately 20 minutes to start up, while systems like an RTO solution can take a full day or more to restart.