CONTROL OF PARTICULATES USING CERAMIC FILTER MEDIA

Environmental legislation enacted as a result of government policy has compelled many industry segments and individual process operators to consider and install pollution abatement equipment. There are many companies in the environmental industry supplying a wide range of pollution control technologies. In the area of particulate emission control there are perhaps 4 principal abatement techniques - cyclones, electrostatic precipitators, wet scrubbers and fabric filters. A relatively new technology, but one which is being increasingly broadly applied is filter plant utilising low density ceramic filter elements.

Low density ceramic filter elements offer a number of significant benefits to the end user - temperature resistance (refractoriness), corrosion resistance, high efficiency, the ability to operate under highly variable conditions and operational reliability. They have generally been applied to processes where the off gas stream is at an elevated temperature and where low emissions from the filter plant are required. They are also particularly applicable to processes which generate fine (sub-micron) particulate which can be difficult to control efficiently and economically using established techniques such as the cyclone or electrostatic precipitator. Applications to date include coal processing, waste incineration, non-ferrous metal processing, chemicals manufacture, fluidised beds and contaminated soil remediation.

Low density ceramic elements offer a viable particulate removal solution to a broad range of processes which can utilise the benefits of the technology. That includes alumina production processes and primary smelters where processes are operating which generate fine particulate matter conveyed by elevated temperature off gases. It is prudent for the process operator, seeking to install abatement equipment, to consider all of the various schemes available on the market and that should include ceramic filters.