Thermal Oxidation on Wastewater Treatment of VOC's



Posted: Thursday, November 11, 2010

by Scott Manes
American Environmental Fabrication & Supply,LLC

Wastewater treatment plants is being mandated to remove low VOC's that is contained within the treatment of water. These facilities send the heavy water vapor through a knock-out or sump tank to remove excess or majority of the liquids while sending to the regenerative thermal oxidizer the VOC laden process air. The forced air subjected to the regenerative thermal oxidizer system has very high humidity and lower VOC content which consequently reduces heat retention in the lower areas of the heat recovery bed. Higher humidity reduces the thermal efficiency of the overall system and will required more energy to sustain thermal operating temperature. Factors to recognize is that systems having high humidity will operate at higher internal and exhaust tempertures so design of materials is an important factor to the overall system success. Below we have listed several other items to reduce operating costs and thermal effects within the regenerative thermal oxidizer system.

Structured ceramic media reduces clogging and downtime in Regenerative Thermal Oxidizers. Regenerative Thermal Oxidizers are increasingly used in wastewater facilities for volatile organic compound (VOC) abatement and odor control. Regenerative Thermal Oxidizers operate at their highest efficiency when equipped with high-quality structured ceramic media packing; the structured material within the Heat Recovery Chamber sustains the most favorable temperature for the oxidation process. Structured ceramic media retains much of the thermal energy used in the regenerative thermal oxidizer system, as much as 85 to 90% depending on the application. Many older Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer systems were installed with saddles or random packing, these packing's hold less thermal value while rapidly becoming clogged with salts and siloxane. These particulates after forming within the ceramic media can cause quarterly washouts and costly shutdowwns. We use ceramic structured packing engineered to resist particulates and plugging while increasing system uptime.

Ceramic structured media packing composed of larger openings which run vertically within in the Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer bed, eliminates any horizontal surfaces which may create resistance to vapor flow. This vertically structured construction radically reduces the channeling of vapor and provides for more efficient contact with the ceramic media surface increasing the thermal value within the heat recovery bed. This increased effectiveness offers reduced in fuel consumption with possible increase flow through the Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer Heat Recovery Chamber Bed over existing ceramic saddle packing's. The reduction of horizontal surfaces also minimizes the packing's ability to entrap particulates such as silica powder from the waste vapor process air, while reducing the pressure drop across the Heat Recovery Chamber.

After replacing existing ceramic random packed Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer heat recovery beds with vertical structured ceramic structured media, Regenerative thermal oxidizer users in wastewater treatment applications will observe a decrease in pressure drop around 22 percent or more while noticing improved efficiency, resulting in significantly lower electrical and fuel costs in Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer operation. American Environmental Fabrication and Supply offers experience in ceramic media packing installations and retrofits.

About American Environmental Fabrication & Supply LLC
Is a provider in air pollution control equipment. An OEM manufacturer of air pollution control equipment  and environmental media worldwide, We are ready for the most demanding thermal applications to include, mass heat transfer and provider of air pollution control technologies, rebuid and engineering services. Based in Hulbert, Oklahoma. For more ceramic media information, call or visit: 1-918-708-1253 or American Environmental Fabrication & Supply
 
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