More than ever before, customers are looking for eco-friendly manufacturers and producers. Sustainability is more than just a buzzword, it’s a necessity in today’s manufacturing environment. It gives businesses a competitive edge. Even if they are operating within the legal requirements of their industries, there may be even more they could do to protect the air and water in their community. Fortunately, industrial scrubbers and baghouses are up to that challenge by helping to keep industrial plants and facilities running cleanly and greenly.
What Are Baghouses?
Baghouses are air pollution equipment designed for use in manufacturing and other industrial applications. Baghouses are designed to remove particulates from the air, so that they don’t pollute the environment. Baghouses are extremely flexible, and they have a wide range of uses in many different types of manufacturing, especially in a dry, dusty atmosphere. Specific fabrics work for specific applications, which means that a baghouse can be customized to the specifications that work best for a particular facility.
What Are Scrubbers?
Scrubbers are an effective method of removing pollutants from exhaust streams. Scrubbers work in both liquid and gas applications, and they can be designed to fit your plant process. The particulate or gas is collected and mixed with a scrubbing liquid, water is a common material. The water molecules encapsulate the dust particle or gas, then those particles settle into the collector. The sludge that is removed from this collector can be deposited into the dumpster or stockpile for removal instead of those pollutants being set free in the environment.
STI Group can install or maintain a wide variety of scrubbers that use different methods to clean the air throughout industrial processes. Lower energy scrubbers operate with centrifugal force, much like a cyclone, to throw the particles against the wall. Higher energy scrubbers have a bed of packing elements which break down the liquid flow. Particles deposit on the surface of these elements.
Efficiency of Baghouses and Scrubbers
Baghouses have been in use in manufacturing for a long time. Long before EPA standards came into play. Provided the fabric is suitable for the operation, a baghouse is operational under high temperatures and low. A baghouse or scrubber should be made to order, it is not something where one-size-fits-all. When a baghouse is designed effectively, it is a highly efficient process that doesn’t cost much to operate relative to the benefits it provides in terms of higher air quality emissions coming from a plant.
It’s important to work with a company that understands baghouse operations. There are many complex factors that go into the design. Different elements affect the cost of operation and efficiency of the baghouse, and it must be compared to the industrial process occurring at the facility and the kinds of pollutants are left over from manufacturing. Baghouses can remove pollutants as small as 2.5 micrometers in diameter. Scrubbers can remove up to 100 percent of the particles when operated with two banks of nozzles.
Maintenance and Upkeep
Baghouses and scrubbers do need to be properly serviced and maintained on a regular basis. However, this process can be made simple through the use of good record-keeping and a proactive approach to maintenance. Regulatory agencies already require plants to maintain thorough records about air quality so it is easy to incorporate maintenance and service plans into this data. Meanwhile, quality industrial service companies like STI Group can help make the process of maintenance and upkeep as easy, effective, and unobtrusive to routine operations as possible.
