Air Pollution Control Posts

At Catalytic Products International, we work with a variety of experts who deal with air pollution control systems at every level. Just as we regularly share our clients’ success stories, we want to look at the work that our team does to meet those clients’ needs.

A thermal oxidizer (also known as a thermal incinerator) is a process unit for air pollution control in many industrial plants that decomposes volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at a high temperature and releases them into the atmosphere.

Oxidation, or combustion as it pertains to the air pollution control industry, can simply be defined as a rapid combination of oxygen with a fuel (in this case, a volatile organic compound, or VOC). This process will result in the release of energy in the form of heat and, if completed correctly in our world, the process will also release carbon dioxide and water. 

Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) is a term used in the air pollution control industry for the process of  selectively targeting a pollutant to remove that pollutant from an exhaust stream. The most common pollutant that is controlled through a SCR process is nitrogen oxide (NOx). While there are many catalysts that can selectively target a number of compounds, the content of this blog will focus on SCR technologies for the reduction of NOx. 

Any facility operator that consumes significant amounts of natural gas should understand the basics of heat recovery. Here at Catalytic Products International (CPI), we find ourselves engaged in energy conservation discussions with our existing and prospective customers several times each week. We felt that “Heat Recovery 101” may be a useful tool to help our readers fully understand some of the basics and economics about heat recovery solutions.

There are hundreds of types of catalyst products at work in the world today. This series will focus only on the use of precious metal catalysts used in air pollution control systems. The most traditional air pollution control device that employs a precious metal catalyst is a Catalytic Oxidizer. Although catalysts have been used in Regenerative Thermal Oxidizers as a means to lower the operating temperature and reduce natural gas consumption, they can also be installed in a catalytic reactor or catalyst bed where the pollutants are found in a pre-heated exhaust stream.

Accurate measurement of airflow is a key part of properly sizing and selecting a new air pollution control device such as a thermal or catalytic oxidizer. Ongoing maintenance of existing thermal oxidizer’s should also include periodic air flow measurements. Usually, airflow measurement is a straightforward exercise, but special situations sometime occur that require alternatives. In this blog, we'll discuss the basics of airflow measurement and how to handle some problematic conditions.

Air quality regulation starts with National Ambient Air Quality Standards, more commonly known by the abbreviation NAAQS. The NAAQS represent the maximum concentration of each regulated pollutant that can be present in the air we breathe, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Each maximum concentration is chosen to fulfill the EPA’s mandate to protect human health and the environment. 

Many pollutants, both natural and synthetic, are gaseous in nature and require specific technology to effectively remove the pollutant from an exhaust or process gas stream. Gaseous industrial pollutants can include:  

One question which we frequently receive is about the length of the process of building and installing an oxidizer. There are many factors which influence the oxidizer installation process, including the client’s procurement process and the complexity of the equipment and location of the site. In this series of blogs, we’ve been taking a look at a typical industrial process utilizing a standard thermal oxidizer, catalytic oxidizer, or regenerative thermal oxidizer. We’ve previously discussed the timelines for the client buying process and oxidizer delivery and installation. In this final blog, we’ll look at the timeline for compliance testing.