Reprinted from Pollution Equipment News, October 2005

OIL MIST EMISSIONS CASE STUDY

Background
Oil mists and hydrocarbon fumes are an emission problem common to many industries, including metals fabrication, food processing, plastics and resins manufacture, adhesives, asphalt, can and wire coating, textile, pharmaceutical, and many others.

The oil mists may be mechanically generated, in which case the size distribution is generally above 1 micron, or generated through fume release and subsequent condensation, in which case the mist is very fine and predominantly submicron. 

Alternatives
Alternatives for oil mist control include the following control technologies:

• Candle-type filters;
• Venturi scrubbers;
• Wet ESP and related devices;
• Oxidizers;
• APC Technologies’ Ultra-High Efficiency Filter (UHF™) system.

Comparison of Alternatives
Candle-type filters can provide high-efficiency control of the oil mist, but do not work effectively if any particulate matter is also present, which is often the case.  The particulate blinds the filter, causing excessive pressure drop and premature changeout or channeling/bypass of the candle filter. 

The venturi scrubber presents multiple problems including lower control efficiency, requires an extremely high pressure drop for micron-range particles and below, presents a wastewater disposal cost issue, and requires much higher overall operating and maintenance cost.

The wet ESP (and similar technology units) and thermal oxidation systems are the most capital intensive and also have very high operating and maintenance cost.

The UHF™ system, which has seen extensive success on oily, sticky aerosol applications, offers a control efficiency of up to 99.9% (via over 30 different media types), simultaneous high-efficiency removal of solid particulate matter, simple operation and extremely low maintenance costs, and no downtime required for filter replacement.

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