This is a two year technology transfer project in collaboration with several industrial partners to demonstrate the feasibility of recovering volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from industrial gas streams by adsorption of these compounds into a suitable adsorbent bed, with subsequent regeneration of the bed by microwave heating. The project plan includes the following elements:
1. Tests in a pilot-scale laboratory desorption column will be conducted to evaluate optimal process parameters for recovery of specific VOCs and to confirm process analysis calculations.
2. Detailed scale-up and cost assessment calculations will further examine the technical and economic feasibility of VOC recovery in specific industrial applications. The primary focus of the feasibility studies will be on VOCs commonly encountered in industrial printing and coating, metal fabrication, and microelectronics fabrication operation. These operations are principal targets for VOC emission reductions in the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments.
3. Computer and laboratory studies will be conducted to support design and construction of commercial-scale VOC recovery systems. These studies will be applied directly to the design and fabrication of a prototype microwave desorber for a field demonstration unit.
4. Field demonstration of microwave-based VOC recovery in a large industrial printing plant. The prototype microwave desorber will be installed in a VOC recovery test unit being provided by an industrial partner and the unit will be used to obtain operating data needed for scale-up to full-scale commercial systems.
Project participants include Borden Inc., which has worldwide printing operations and has agreed to serve as the test site for the field demonstration; Environmental C&C, an engineering firm with extensive experience in the design and construction of fluidized bed adsorption systems; Dow Chemical Company, supplier of polymeric adsorbents to be used in the demonstration; and Microdry, a manufacturer of industrial microwave equipment.