Internationale Partnersuche

Innovation & Technologie Angebot

Method and device for adsorptive catalytic cleaning of contaminated gas streams

Country of Origin: Germany
Reference Number: TODE20180528001
Publication Date: 29 May 2018

Summary

A German environmental research centre developed a method and device for efficient cleaning of contaminated gas (namely air) streams.
The approach is based on linking several sub-steps in a way that contaminated gas flows can be cleaned continuously with minimum energy consumption and with high flexibility.
The centre is looking for partners for technical cooperation agreements and commercial agreement with technical assistance.

Description

The German institution is one of the world’s leading research centres in the field of environmental research, enjoying high social recognition. It demonstrates ways in which a sustainable use of our natural resource base is possible for the benefit of both humanity and the environment.



Cleaning polluted discharged air and exhaust gas flows represents on the one hand ecological requirements and on the other hand, an immense cost factor in the context of technical procedures.



The scope of application for corresponding technologies ranges from emission reduction in the plastics industry, manufacture, processing and application of varnishes, paints and adhesives over industrial animal husbandry, the handling of solvents in different industrial processes to environmental engineering applications such as the mechanical-biological and thermal waste treatment as well as soil and groundwater treatment.



In principle, there is still a technology gap in the field of process engineering for medium pollutant concentrations, in the case of hydrocarbons as impurities within the range between about 0.1 and 2 g / m3. Within this concentration range neither the adsorption on activated carbon, nor the catalytic afterburning work effectively.

Furthermore, from a process engineering point of view, in many applications strongly fluctuating or continuously changing concentrations of pollutants are critical.



Surprisingly, it was found that with the initiation of a thermo-chromatographic pulse, the described effects of adsorption, desorption and oxidation can be connected optimally. The material and heat transport are coupled in a way that with only one solid bed a continuous exhaust air purification is possible, even though adsorption, desorption and reaction phases follow one after the other.

The invention is based on an adsorptive accumulation of pollutants, the dielectric heating of a solid material, which comprises an adsorber and a catalyst component, the local and temporal selective energy coupling with the help of a transmission medium, the initiation of a temperature pulse coupled with a mass transport and the thermo-catalytic oxidation of the pollutants within the gas stream. 



The procedure is divided into two fundamental phases, whose transition is initiated by the input of the transfer medium into the solid material. In a first phase, at a base temperature, the pollutants are extracted from the gas stream via adsorption and the purified gas stream leaves the solid bed. In the second step, a higher dielectric loss is initiated through the transmission medium resulting in a locally increased heating of the solid material. This leads to both a desorption of pollutants as well as to their chemical conversion at the catalyst, while the exhaust air flow in turn leaves the solid bed reactor in purified form.



There are partners sought from industry and research for validation and technology optimisation under technical cooperation agreement and for application in products under commercial agreement with technical assistance.

Advantages and Innovations

This invention presents a method and apparatus for cleaning contaminated gas streams (preferably air or oxygen), which allow to pass through a combination of adsorptive concentration, desorption and oxidation as well as the initiation of heat and material flow pulses. In such a way an exhaust air purification method is presented, which can be used flexibly particularly in a wide concentration range as well as in fluctuating pollutant levels. Application fields range from industrial processes to off-gas cleaning in soil remediation by soil vapour extraction.



Furthermore, a significant advantage of the invention is that with the help of only one solid bed reactor the carrier gas stream can be cleaned continuously. There is no interruption of the gas cleaning process or switching of gas flows between different devices.

Stage Of Development

Available for demonstration

Requested partner

There are partners sought from industry and research, active in the field of soil remediation, for validation and technology optimisation under technical cooperation agreement and for application in products under commercial agreement with technical assistance.