Air treatment in industry: a priority necessity
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Air filtration is an essential component in industrial environments to ensure optimum air quality.
Industries generate various pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and odors, which can pose risks to human health and the environment. Without proper treatment, these pollutants can lead to respiratory illness, irritation, and contribute to air pollution.
Tailor-made answers to your industrial challenges
EXPERTISE.
Servithen draws on its 38 years of expertise in filtration and neutralization processes to provide you with solutions tailored to your needs in the design, manufacture and installation of activated carbon towers and/or bag filters, balancing technical performance with CAPEX/OPEX control.
MULTIDISCIPLINARITY.
Servithen deploys the multi-disciplinary skills of its engineers to provide you with comprehensive, turnkey solutions, in strict compliance with current standards.
ADAPTABILITY.
Servithen analyzes your needs in depth to propose a tailor-made solution, perfectly in tune with your expectations and constraints.
How does industrial air treatment work?
Industrial air purification involves a number of steps and techniques designed to eliminate or reduce pollutants in the air.
These processes include:
1. Filtration: Use of high-efficiency filters to capture dust and contaminants.
2. Adsorption: A process in which VOCs are trapped on the surface of materials such as activated carbon, which is particularly effective for a wide range of pollutants.
3. Condensation: Technique used to lower the temperature of the air stream loaded with moisture and VOCs, enabling them to pass from the gas phase to the liquid phase.
4. Absorption: VOCs are absorbed by specific liquids, enabling them to be separated from the air to be treated.
5. Thermal oxidation: Destroys VOCs at high temperatures (700-1000°C) by converting them into carbon dioxide and water, often used for high concentrations of pollutants. In this technique, beds of ceramic material can be used to store the heat of combustion. This heat is then used to preheat the exhaust gas stream, giving a heat recovery efficiency of 90-98% This is called regenerative thermal oxidation.
6. Catalytic oxidation: Operates at lower temperatures (200-450°C) using a catalyst, reducing energy requirements and limiting the formation of hazardous by-products such as nitrogen oxides.
7. Biological oxidation: Uses micro-organisms to degrade VOCs into CO2, water and biomass. Although highly effective, this method requires stable conditions for the micro-organisms, which may limit its industrial application.
8. Heat exchangers: Heat exchangers are commonly used to recover thermal energy from off-gases. Common types include plate heat exchangers, tubular heat exchangers, and recuperators, which transfer heat from exhaust gases to other process fluids, improving the overall energy efficiency of treatment systems.
What are the fields of application for air treatment?
Treating air is essential in many industrial sectors
1. Chemical industry: For control of solvent fumes and other hazardous chemicals.
2.Pharmaceutical: To maintain sterile environments and avoid cross-contamination.
3.Agri-food: To ensure food safety by eliminating odors and microbial contaminants.
4.Waste treatment: To control fumes from incinerators and other waste management facilities.
5. Surface treatment: Used in the aerospace, automotive and furniture industries for degreasing and painting, often using chlorinated, aliphatic or aromatic solvents.
6.Printing: For commercial and packaging printing, using solvents such as toluene, esters, ketones and alcohols.
7.Rubber and tire industry: For mixer extraction and gluing/vulcanizing, using chlorinated and aliphatic solvents.
Main features of air treatment solutions
Benefits:
– Improved indoor and outdoor air quality.
– Reduced health risks with healthy air discharge.
– Regulatory compliance with environmental standards.
– Energy efficiency thanks to advanced technologies such as catalytic recuperative oxidation and heat recovery systems like regenerative thermal oxidation destruction.
Drawbacks:
– High initial investment cost to install advanced systems.
– Regular maintenance required to ensure system efficiency.
– Energy consumption can be high, especially for thermal oxidation systems.
Focus on the treatment of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
What are VOCs?
VOCs are chemical compounds that vaporize easily in the air at room temperature, contributing to air pollution and posing health risks. The general composition of VOCs includes carbon, hydrogen and heteroatoms such as oxygen, chlorine, sulfur and nitrogen. The main families of existing solvents are :
1. Aliphatics (heptane, hexane, pentane).
2. Aromatics (benzene, xylene, toluene).
3. Alcohols (ethanol, methanol, butanol).
4. Ketones (acetone, methyl ethyl ketone).
5. Esters (ethyl acetate, butyl acetate).
6. Chlorinated (trichloroethylene).
7. Plasticizers.
8. Nitrogen compounds (amines, nitriles).
9. Sulfur compounds (mercaptans, dimethylsulfide).
How do you purify VOCs?
The main purification methods include :
1. Activated carbon adsorption: Highly effective in capturing a wide variety of VOCs.
2. Thermal and catalytic oxidation: Decomposition of VOCs into harmless compounds at elevated temperatures.
3. Absorption: Use of washing liquids to dissolve and remove VOCs.
Focus on industrial odor treatment
Unpleasant odors are often an indicator of the presence of VOCs. Their treatment can include:
1. Aspiration at source: Capture any incoming pollutant before it spreads, thus minimizing odor nuisance.
2. Ambient air purifiers: Used when air pollution sources are diffused, these devices filter ambient air to eliminate odors and improve air quality.
3. Oxidation: Thermal or catalytic oxidation techniques to break down odorous molecules.
In conclusion, advanced technologies make it possible to effectively manage VOCs and odors, and thus clean up polluted air. To find out more about our state-of-the-art solutions and equipment ranges, contact Servithen today.
