Exhaust air purification plant for the degradation of solvents (VOC)

Cause

In the production plant at the Weingarten site of the company KLEBCHEMIE M. G. Becker GmbH &Co. KG, process-typical emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) occur during the processing of adhesives.

The solvent emissions are extracted locally, collected in a pipe system and led out of the building via a central exhaust air system. The operator was looking for an effective and cost-efficient solution for exhaust air treatment and commissioned uviblox GmbH to carry out pilot tests. Based on the pilot tests, a system based on catalytic oxidation with an upstream UV stage was developed, manufactured and put into operation.

Photo-oxidation system

The exhaust air is dedusted with a coarse and a fine filter to avoid impurities and deposits on the downstream tip smoother. This has the function of removing VOC concentration peaks from the volume flow and removing them with the help of an adsorber. A concentration is generated at which degradation is guaranteed by the downstream system technology. Once the tip smoother is filled, it can be cleaned and regenerated.

Then the volume flow with a medium VOC concentration passes through the UV stage with two medium-pressure lamps. These excite the pollutant molecules and break the compounds. This enables a lower input temperature into the downstream catalyst and thus a significant saving of electrical energy.

In the catalytic converter, the volatile hydrocarbons are oxidised to water and CO2 by means of a platinum/palladium catalyst. The resulting heat is fed back into the process, on the one hand to reach the inlet temperatures at the catalyst, and on the other hand the heat can be used to heat the fresh air flow for the regeneration of the tip smoother.

The system was completely assembled at uviblox in the workshop and transported in two parts with corresponding flange connections by truck to the installation site and reassembled there.