Upstream Fan Exhaust Air Condensate Separation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Operations involving roll stands or roll trains face challenges in complying with regulatory limits for condensable materials in exhaust air streams due to the formation of vaporized components from cooling or lubricating media, leading to contamination of exhaust air with condensable materials.
Innovation Solution
The apparatus positions a fan upstream of the separator, with a scrubber and cooling device in between, creating overpressure that facilitates initial condensation and centrifugal separation of filterable materials, followed by sequential separation and cooling to reduce condensable materials below regulatory limits before exhausting into the environment.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the fan is disposed downstream of the aerosol separator, then the fan blades suffer less soiling by airborne particles, but the apparatus cannot create overpressure to facilitate initial condensation and separation of condensable materials
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the conventional arrangement by placing the fan upstream of the separator instead of downstream. This reversal creates overpressure conditions that facilitate condensation and separation of condensable materials, directly addressing the harmful emissions problem despite the trade-off of increased fan blade soiling.
Solution Approach 2:
The fan is positioned to create overpressure before the exhaust air enters the separator system. This preliminary pressure increase enables condensation to occur upstream, allowing condensable materials to be separated before the air reaches the exhaust point, thus preventing harmful emissions in advance.
2Productivity
If cooling medium and lubricating medium are applied to rolls during metal strip rolling, then the rolling process can proceed, but vaporized components from these media contaminate the exhaust air with condensable materials
Solution Approach 1:
The patent converts the harmful vaporized components into a beneficial separation process. By creating overpressure with the upstream fan, the system promotes condensation of the vaporized cooling and lubricating medium components, transforming them from harmful emissions into condensable materials that can be separated and removed before exhaust.
Solution Approach 2:
The system exploits phase transitions by creating conditions that cause vaporized components to condense back into liquid form. The overpressure generated by the upstream fan facilitates this phase change from vapor to liquid, enabling separation of condensable materials from the exhaust air stream.
3Object-generated harmful factors
If a scrubber is disposed between the fan and the separator, then condensable materials can be separated more effectively, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the exhaust air treatment process into distinct stages: overpressure creation by the fan, condensation in the scrubber, and separation in the downstream separator. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function optimally, effectively removing condensable materials while organizing the complexity into manageable functional modules.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration effectively reduces the proportion of condensable materials in the exhaust air stream to meet regulatory standards by enhancing filtration and condensation processes, with the added benefit of reusing condensate to minimize scrubbing medium supplementation.
Implementation Method 1
creating overpressure that facilitates initial condensation
Implementation Method 2
vaporized, which in particular involves formation of condensable materials
Implementation Method 3
passed to a separator, comprised of a plurality of knitted mesh cartridges. Oil droplets contained in the exhaust air stream agglomerate on the knitted mesh material
Implementation Method 4
creating overpressure that facilitates initial condensation and centrifugal separation of filterable materials
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to an apparatus and to a method for separating condensable materials from an exhaust air stream. Known apparatuses of this type typically comprise a flow duct for the correspondingly contaminated exhaust air, wherein a first separator (114) and a second separator are connected in series in the flow duct (110). A fan is typically connected downstream of the two separators and operates as a suction fan in order to draw the exhaust air through said separators and to discharge the exhaust air to the environment after it has passed through both separators. In a rolling mill, order to observe predefined limit values for the proportion of condensable materials in exhaust air streams before such streams are discharged into the ambient air, the present invention provides for the exhaust air to be separated at the rolling mill itself, and, downstream, for the fan to be placed not at the outlet of the separators but upstream of the first separator. In addition, a scrubber is connected between the fan and the first separator, and a cooling device is provided between the first and second separator. Following the last of the separators, the exhaust gas streams A and B are reunited and are exhausted via a stack.