From EPA Penalties to Peak Performance: Anguil’s Catalyst Replacement Success Story

THE CHALLENGE

Imagine investing in an expensive system to treat your manufacturing exhaust for pollutants, and instead of treating the air you face complaints from neighbors, a supplier that can’t find or repair the problem, a large environmental fine, and financial penalties compounding daily. Certainly, it seems overwhelming at the least. Unfortunately, a New Jersey pharmaceutical company found themselves in that exact situation after purchasing a thermal incinerator to treat the heptane and hexane in their exhaust.

The thermal incinerator’s “tubular” design was modified with a catalyst bed to reduce the system’s operational costs. Alas, when operating in catalytic mode, the oxidizer failed to provide the 95% destruction efficiency of non-methane hydrocarbons required by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. These odorous emissions led to an environmental protection agency (EPA) consent decree, complete with a $175,000 civil penalty. Although the company was proactive in trying to solve the emission problem, the EPA assigned penalties of $2,500 for every day the violation persisted. The original equipment supplier attempted to rectify the issue but were unable to identify the problem. Leaving the pharmaceutical company in violation of their New Jersey air permit and racking up more fines every day.

THE SOLUTION

After struggling, and ultimately failing, to solve the problem with the original supplier, the pharmaceutical company reached out to Anguil Environmental Systems, Inc. Anguil’s proven expertise with catalytic systems, deep knowledge of catalyst science, and engineering abilities made us the candidate best suited to tackle the volatile organic compound (VOC) problem successfully.

The first step in Anguil’s approach was to explore the reason for catalyst nonperformance. There were several potential reasons for catalyst failure. The possibility of catalyst masking or the presence of a poisoning agent (i.e. sulfur, phosphorus, heavy metals) within the VOC-laden stream was examined. However, no significant levels of any of these agents were detected.

Another possible reason was the industrial process stream being allowed to pass through the oxidizer before it was brought to proper operating temperature. This would result in coating the stainless-steel rings with the heptane and hexane hydrocarbons. If this was the case, when the unit was brought to the proper operating temperature, oxidation would occur on the catalyst, leaving a carbon deposit. This type of carbon deposit would result in the formation of incomplete combustion products and decreased destruction efficiency. No signs of these carbon deposits were detected.

Having eliminated the initial possibilities, Anguil conducted a laboratory performance test that finally indicated the true reason for catalyst failure: the catalytic stainless-steel rings lacked the proper surface area to achieve the promised destruction efficiency. This insight revealed there was less than 50% destruction efficiency of a test stream, indicating a catalyst failure.

THE RESULT

Anguil’s remedy was a honeycomb catalyst. The catalyst has a 300 cell-per-square-inch ceramic substrate. This focused design is more than 100 times the surface area than the old stainless-steel rings – a single cubic foot offers more surface area than an entire football field! This significantly increased the catalyst’s efficiency and reactivity. The oxidizer was equipped with a new reactor section to house the nine cubic feet of monolithic catalyst. A 95% destruction efficiency guarantee was provided along with the system retrofit.

A follow-up flame ionization detector (FID) was also performed on this retrofit and a carbon filter was added to eliminate methane readings. The FID test results indicated a VOC inlet concentration of 943 ppm and an oxidizer outlet concentration of less than 20 ppm. The company is now EPA-compliant with a 97.8% destruction efficiency.

This case study underscores Anguil’s commitment to delivering not just equipment, but comprehensive solutions that ensure environmental compliance and operational peace of mind.