Many industrial processes produce or use volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). VOCs and HAPs are hydrocarbons — necessary components for industries such as printing, painting or coating. 

A North American plastics company needed a way to control emissions as it increased production capacity. A system, designed by Ceco Environmental, will capture and treat hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) for the company through a packaged Venturi scrubber and Adwest regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO).

In an interview with Editor Linda Becker, Matthew Konkle with Dürr Megtec explains the types of technologies used for emissions control in the process industries and offers advice for proactive and reactive maintenance of these systems.

The three largest contributors to the formation of NO_X are industrial sources, natural sources and agricultural sources. Abatement and control technology for NO_X includes a variety of solutions. Among them are oxidizers, low NO_X burners and selective and non-selective catalytic reduction units.

Thermal oxidizers are used to destroy hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are the end result of an industrial manufacturing process.

In many industrial processes, wastewater is a major economic and environmental concern.

Oxidizer achieves emission destruction through the process of high temperature thermal or catalytic oxidation, converting the pollutants to carbon dioxide and water vapor while reusing the thermal energy generated to reduce operating costs.