Case History: An Alternative for Improved VOC and PM Reduction in Wood Products Facilities, 2001 Environmental Conference Proceedings
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G. Wayne Hardy, Howard Hohl--The wood products industry is facing a potential nightmare-the further abatement of volatile organic compounds (VOC) and removal of particulate matter from exhaust streams.
Historically, wood product plants have used different combinations of treatment devices to abate both VOCs and particulate matter (PM). The combinations include high efficiency, multi-cyclone devices for PM removal, followed by a wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP) for particulate control, plus a regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO) for both VOC and particulate control. Some plants would use sacrificial beds ahead of the RTO that would provide additional particulate control to minimize or delay plugging of the ceramic media heat exchanger in the RTO. The end result in many cases were reduced production rates or even plant outages to meet environmental obligations and deal with unscheduled maintenance concerns somewhere in the abatement system.
An alternative solution has been developed that couples the use of high efficiency multi-cyclone and a valveless RTO (VRTO) together to abate VOCs and particulate matter. The advantages this particular combination provide include no WESP required, uptime improvement, guaranteed VOC destruction, and overall a simplified operation.
The case study will describe a specific abatement application for a particleboard mill in Texas. The dryer exhaust abatement system will be described in detail to include specific features of the system that have provided higher uptime and excellent VOC destruction. Specific features that improve operation include continuous, online, clean bakeout, heat recovery, a unique solids removal system, and valveless RTO design.