Activated Carbon Adsorber as Backup for Thermal Oxidizer

diagram of activated carbon adsorber as backup to thermal oxidizer
Activated carbon backup for thermal oxidizer
Courtesy Process Combustion Corporation
Volatile organic compounds (VOC) are one class of air pollutants with emission limits described in law. Industrial plants that produce VOC as part of their processing must take steps for the removal or destruction of the pollutant prior to discharge in the atmosphere.

Thermal oxidization systems are routinely employed to remove volatile organic compounds from industrial emission air streams. The systems deliver some operational advantages.
  • Ease of operation
  • Flexibility to match process changes
  • Continuous operation without need to change disposables
  • No byproducts requiring further handling or disposal
  • Simple process with small number of components
  • Broad application range for VOC
Operation of the thermal oxidation system is essential to maintaining continuance of plant operations, since the oxidizer continually processes plant output. The potential costs associated with a work stoppage due to malfunction or maintenance of the thermal oxidation system may make the installation of a backup VOC processor a prudent business decision.

Activated carbon is a well recognized material for the capture of VOC. Along with the addition of other sorbents, the scavenging profile of the fixed adsorbent bed can be tailored to specific process demands. The activated carbon processor is essentially a filtration unit that traps the target compounds as discharged process air flows through the unit. It is a simple effective system with known performance parameters

An activated carbon adsorber will serve as an effective backup unit for a thermal oxidizer. The limitations of the activated carbon unit are its rated flow rate for which VOC removal is defined, as well as the fixed holding capacity of the adsorbent itself. Once spent, the adsorbent must be regenerated or replaced. In selecting a properly sized backup VOC adsorber, these factors should be taken into account.

Share your VOC pollution control challenges with specialists in the field. The combination of your own process knowledge and experience with their product application expertise will produce effective solutions.