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Control of High-Volume, Low-VOC-Concentration Air Streams
EPA Contract Number: 68D60053Title: Control of High-Volume, Low-VOC-Concentration Air Streams
Investigators: Wijmans, J. W.
Small Business: Membrane Technology and Research Inc.
EPA Contact: Manager, SBIR Program
Phase: II
Project Period: September 1, 1996 through December 1, 1998
Project Amount: $225,000
RFA: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) - Phase II (1995)
Research Category: Air Quality and Air Toxics , SBIR - Air
Description:
High-volume, low-VOC-concentration air streams are produced by a broad range of industries. The most widely used conventional treatment technology is carbon adsorption. However, carbon adsorption produces dilute aqueous waste streams as a secondary waste, is difficult to adapt to particulate-containing streams, and is too expensive to be applied to some industries. Scrubbing the air with a absorbent liquid is a low-cost alternative technology, but it is generally limited to scrubbing with water because of the expense and difficulty of regenerating non-aqueous scrubbing liquids. The technology proposed here uses a low volatility organic scrubbing liquid to remove VOCs from the dilute air stream. The liquid is regenerated by a combined stripper/membrane vapor separation unit.In Phase I of the project, the technical and economic feasibility of the scrubbing liquid regeneration step was evaluated in laboratory tests with a stripper/pilot-scale membrane system. An economic analysis prepared on the basis of these results shows the process offers significant cost and operating advantages over alternative technologies for VOC-containing streams in the 500 to 5,000 ppm range. In the proposed Phase II project, a scrubbing unit will be added to the existing system for evaluation of the complete process at the large pilot plant scale.
Supplemental Keywords:small bsiness, SBIR, air pollution, engineering. , Toxics, Air, Scientific Discipline, RFA, Engineering, Chemistry, & Physics, Chemical Engineering, air toxics, Chemistry, Environmental Engineering, particulate matter, Environmental Chemistry, VOCs, treatment, membrane technology, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), ambient emissions, industrial emissions, membrane technology , absorbent liquid, ambient air, emission control strategies, industrial air pollution, air scrubbers, air pollutants, particulates, emission control technologies, air pollution
SBIR Phase I: