Chemical Engineering December 2022 - 14

Newsfront
Monitoring and Control
Improves Dust Handling
As dust collection becomes an integral part of chemical processes, monitoring and other
technologies promote efficiency and performance
D
ust control has always
been important in the
chemical
process
industries
(CPI) due to the often
toxic and combustible nature of the
chemicals being processed. As budgets
and exposure limits continue
to tighten, monitoring and control
and efficiency-minded technologies
are emerging as the latest trends in
dust-control systems.
" Old-school dust collection served
an important purpose - keeping
employees and facilities safe - but
it was often set up and not thought
about again until it was ineffective.
Today, dust control is considered an
integral part of the process because
it impacts safety, product quality and
the efficiency and productivity of the
plant, " says Andy Thomason, senior
applications specialist with Camfil
Air Pollution Control (APC) (Jonesboro,
Ark.; www.camfilapc.com).
" Processors are beginning to apply
monitoring and connectivity to dustcontrol
systems because it provides
insight. The more information they
can gather, the more they can trend
that data and make better decisions
about controlling the collector so that
it provides the safest, most effective
and most efficient operation. "
FIGURE 1. Having a dust-collection solution specifically engineered for
an application will ensure factors such as the amount of dust generated,
characteristics of the dust, dust particle size and temperature are
taken into consideration so processors end up with an efficient and
effective dust-control system
14
The importance of dust control
The CPI is full of dusts - moving
dusts, grinding dusts, conveying
dusts - and many of these dusts
cause challenges. These challenges
include housekeeping issues, cross
contamination and product quality
problems, employee or environmental
exposure risks and fire or explosion
hazards, so dust must be controlled.
" Control of potentially toxic and
combustible dust generated in chemical-processing
facilities is essential to
protecting employee health and maintaining
product quality,
while preventing a possible
explosion down
the line at the dust
collector itself, " notes
Scott Pitts, vice president
of engineering
and equipment sales
with U.S. Air Filtration,
Inc. (Tyler, Texas; www.
usairfiltration.com).
However, control is
not as easy as setting
up a dust collector and
turning it on. " There are
many challenges and
these can vary from
process to process
and facility to facility.
Factors such as the
amount of dust generU.S.
Air Filtration
ated, characteristics of the dust, dustparticle
size and temperature all play
a part in the design of the dust control
solution, " Pitts continues. " Having a
dust-collection solution specifically
engineered for your application will
ensure all these factors are taken into
consideration " (Figure 1).
J. Kirt Boston, global manager of
Torit product technology with Donaldson
Co. (Bloomington, Minn.; www.
donaldson.com) agrees: " Properly
employing dust-control strategies
eliminates the majority of nuisancedust
releases. That's what a system
design aims for: How do you avoid
allowing the contaminant to get out
and become an uncontrolled issue
that can create problems related to
employee and facility safety, product
quality and housekeeping? How do
you effectively control a contaminant
using the least amount of air, energy
and space? How do you avoid the
potential risks associated with uncontrolled
dust in a way that is less
intrusive and less costly? "
Monitoring and control
Processors rely on dust control to remain
in compliance and avoid safety
issues, while also ensuring product
quality. For this reason, dust-control
systems have become a crucial part
of the process. " In many cases, if the
dust collector stops working properly,
the whole process must be shut
down because they can move out
of OSHA [Occupational Safety and
Health Administration] or EPA [U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency]
compliance, create fire or combustion
hazards or have cross-contamination
or quality issues if the dust
collector starts spewing dust into
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DECEMBER 2022
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Chemical Engineering December 2022

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