Grantee Research Project Results
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. (Hans) G.
Small Business: Membrane Technology and Research Inc.
EPA Contact: Richards, April
Phase: II
Project Period: September 1, 1996 through December 1, 1998
Project Amount: $225,000
RFA: Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) - Phase II (1996) Recipients Lists
Research Category: SBIR - Air Pollution , Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) , Air Quality and Air Toxics
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., RFA, Air, Scientific Discipline, Toxics, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry, particulate matter, Environmental Chemistry, Engineering, Chemistry, & Physics, VOCs, air toxics, Environmental Engineering, industrial emissions, air scrubbers, emission control strategies, treatment, membrane technology, stripper membrane vapor separation unit, industrial air pollution, particulates, ambient emissions, emission control technologies, absorbent liquid, air pollutants, ambient air, membrane technology , air pollutionProgress and Final Reports:
SBIR Phase I:
Control of High-Volume, Low-VOC-Concentration Air StreamsThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.