MEGTEC CleanSwitch Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer Reduces VOC Emissions More Than 80 Percent

Helps coil coater lower costs and win environmental award

De Pere, WI - MEGTEC Systems announces that its CleanSwitch regenerative thermal oxidizer has helped First American Resources Company win an environmental award for reducing VOC and hazardous air pollutant (HAP) emissions, reducing energy consumption, and improving process ventilation and dryer efficiency.

First American, Mableton, Ga., was recently recognized by the Georgia Chapter of the Air & Waste Management Association with its annual environmental award in the category of air (minor source). The award recognizes First American for:

• Reducing natural gas consumption more than 50 percent for its coating lines, yielding energy cost savings of more than $10,000 per week.
• Reducing VOC emissions more than 80 percent, from 17 to 18 tons annually, to approximately 3 tons per year.
• Increasing VOC and HAP destruction rates from 97.8 percent to 99.4 percent.
• Improving coating room ventilation and dryer efficiency by installing exhaust fans and hoods to pull solvent vapors away from operators. The solvent-laden air is then preheated in a heat recovery system before being sent back to the process dryers.

First American manufactures high-quality, pre-coated aluminum and steel coils for the building and automotive industries. Its coatings are all solvent-based and include various adhesives, polyesters and poly vinyl chloride (PVC) paints. Its products are used to make automobile window and door seals, engine head gaskets, residential windows and housing exterior trim.

"Our two main objectives were to ensure ongoing environmental compliance and reduce energy consumption," explained Stan Hollander, president and chief executive officer. "Although our emission control equipment at the time was 15 years old, it still met EPA permit requirements but was very inefficient. We determined the best course of action was to upgrade to new technology." First American chose the MEGTEC CleanSwitch regenerative thermal oxidizer, with secondary heat-recovery. The 25,000-scfm capacity unit has thermal efficiencies up to 95 percent and a 99+ percent VOC removal rate. In addition, the unit provides exceptional operating economy by being able to run in the self-sustaining mode, meaning no additional fuel is required to destroy VOCs. The unit has a relative payback period of approximately two years.

MEGTEC custom-designed the CleanSwitch RTO to fit the available space at the First American facility.

MEGTEC¹s RTO technology incorporates an extremely efficient heat recovery system to reduce energy usage of the control device to a fraction of the amount used by First American¹s previous environmental control technology.

An air-to-air heat recovery system further reduces process energy usage. The CleanSwitch RTO system uses the hot, clean exhaust from the oxidizer to preheat the make-up air used in the process dryers first. The RTO exhaust is sent through one side of a secondary plate-and-frame heat exchanger, while process make-up air is routed through the other side of the exchanger.

By reducing emissions more than 80 percent, First American was able to move to a different level of EPA permitting. This enabled the company to drop its Title V application and go with a Synthetic Minor permit classification, which is at the 25-ton level.

"We held a 50-ton permit in the event we decided to expand production," said Rick Blackmer, director of engineering and quality assurance. "With our reduced emissions load now at about 2 tons annually, we can add another line and still operate well within the compliance guidelines."

Blackmer estimates the Synthetic Minor permit fee will save between $5,000 and $10,000 annually in reduced emission fees, paperwork, human resources and less-rigorous reporting requirements.

SOURCE: MEGTEC Systems