Southwest Environmental Limited

Air Abatement Design

Abatement or Environmental Abatement is a process by which ant harmful substances are removed from an emission source such as a exhaust from a engine or ventilation duct exhaust point. The type of abatement utilized changes dependent on what is coming of of the chimney, stack or vent. Below are discussed some of the differing abatement technologies and where they might be appropriate. We can supply information on any of the below technologies on their own or working in unison to provide adequate abatement for your process. We have worked with large industrial operators to provide design and compliance advice all over the UK. We can provide an Abatement Technology Report for you process.

Scrubbers

Scrubbers work by blowing the process air through a drizzle or bath of acid or alkaline. You would use an alkaline scrubber for an acid process, or an acid scrubber for a alkaline process. Scrubbers are also partially effective at removing particulate matter.

Carbon Filters

Granular Activate Carbon Filters (GAC) are good for removing VOPCs and volatiles from air emissions. In a domestic settings you may well find a GAC filertr on top of your chip fryer, or in you cooker extractor hood, the GAC remove odors from the emissions.

Grease Baffles

Often used in commercial kitchen of food processing areas, grease baffles collect grease from extracted air. They are a very basic form of abatement are are not often used on their own, being couple with GAC or HEPA filters.

HEPA Filters

HEPA filters are good for removing very fine particulate matter from emissions. HEPA filters come in different grades and providing they are correctly specified have very high removal rates.

Bag Filters

Bag filters are filters in the shape of bags. Old fashioned hoovers are the closet domestic analogy. Air is blown through often a series of bag filters of differing weaves. They are particularly good when they is a lot of particulate matter to filter out, saw mills etc. often use bag filters.

Centrifuge

Centrifuges work by using a swirling action to remove particulates and liquid droplets by centrifugal force.

UV Reactor

The new kid of the block, these use UV light to degrade volatiles, they are very popular in inner city restaurants that offer very odorous foods such as curry or BBQ. They are very effective and require less maintenance when compared to GAC filters, although initial cost can be higher.

Abatement Design in Pictures

UV "Filtration"

As mentioned above UV abatement is highly effective for remove odour and volatiles. Image: Evan Mason [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Filter Papers

Filter papers "collect" remaining pollutants / determinates / substances and these are then analyzed to determine effectivness of the the abetments systems as trailled.

Temporary Abatement Test Rig

Temporary ducting is established so as to divert emissions exhaust to the testing array.

Flow Rate

Other simple monitoring is carried out such as flow rates. Both flow rates fro the test rig and the actual emission point are required.