RTO serves a double purpose in the steel industry

Application

A leading company in the steel industry (including automobile, construction, packaging,…), needed a regenerative thermal oxidation plant. The company produces 100 million tons of steel annually, has 260 000 employees in 60 countries, with industrial presence in more than 20 countries on 4 continents. It has several production plants all over Europe. One of these is installing a metal coating line equipped with two furnaces. 

Our client requested an installation with a double purpose. On one hand it had to purify VOCs from the air in order to comply with the environmental legislation.  On the other hand, it had to provide hot air to the coating furnaces, so they could take advantage of the heat. 

Due to a higher VOC concentration than the autothermal point, heat can also be recovered for the production process. So in this case not only the heat will be recovered by the ceramic beds, but there is still heat left to be recovered for the production process. By using a hot by pass, the required energy recovery can be delivered by using a heat exchanger. The installation will then not only destroy VOC’s in a very efficient way, but it will also recover a maximum of energy.