The Brenntag location in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, runs a highly efficient exhaust air purification system which ensures that the vapors produced when solvents are processed are not released into the environment and that only purified exhaust air is released.
The air is purified by means of catalytic oxidation. The exhaust air containing solvents is sucked away directly from various installations and workplaces at the plant and is fed into the purification system. Here it is preheated by a heat exchanger, before being brought up to operating temperature by a gas burner. A combustion process then occurs in the catalytic converter in which the solvents are oxidized to become harmless carbon dioxide. The purified exhaust air can be released directly via a chimney, as it falls within the relevant statutory clean gas values.
The advantage of catalytic oxidation is its comparatively low energy requirements, as the chemical reaction can occur at relatively low temperatures of approximately 300 degrees Celsius. In addition, this system involves the purified, hot exhaust air then being used to preheat the as yet unpurified air in the heat exchanger.
