TKS Industrial Company

United States

A more thermally-efficient design, the Recuperative Thermal Oxidizer passes the hot exhaust gas through a heat exchanger, heating the incoming process air. This way, the burner in the oxidizer only needs to provide a fraction of the heat load required for a successful combustion reaction. The heat exchanger and additional ductwork costs more money upfront, but the recuperative design requires less natural gas during operation.

The most basic type of oxidizer is a direct-fired, also known as an incinerator or afterburner. As the simplest type of oxidizer, it does not include any heat recovery, heat exchanger, scrubber, adsorbent, or catalyst material. It offers the lowest upfront capital investment cost, but requires the most energy to operate. Other oxidizer designs implement a heat recovery mechanism or catalyst to reduce the required reaction temperature.

A more complex design, the catalytic oxidizer uses a precious metal catalyst, such as Platinum, Palladium, and Rhodium, within the combustion chamber to lower the required reaction temperature. Whereas a direct-fired oxidizer would require temperatures near 1400F - 1450F, in the presence of a catalyst, the same reaction can complete at a much lower temperature: 600F - 650F. The lower firing temperature requires less natural gas than both a direct-fired a recuperative oxidizer. It also comes in a regenerative catalytic design (RCO).

Best suited for large air volumes where a concentrator cannot be used, the RTO boasts the best thermal efficiency of all oxidizers. Using two or three beds of ceramic media, the RTO design uses waste heat stored in the ceramic media to heat the incoming air to temperatures of 1300+F, very near to the oxidation temperature. Even at reaction temperatures of 1450F, the RTO burner may only need to heat the air 50-100F.

Thermal oxidizers are a type of industrial equipment used in manufacturing and other industrial processes to reduce emissions of harmful organic solvents, air pollutants, and other industrial emissions. Using extreme high temperatures to trigger a combustion reaction, the emissions undergo thermal oxidization, transforming the complex organic solvents into CO2 and H2O. Oxidizers, also known as incinerators or after-burners, are used at many manufacturing facilities worldwide. During the manufacturing process for tape or adhesives, as an example, solvents are released into the air, collected and transported via large industrial ductwork powered by large fans, until they reach their target destination: a thermal oxidizer. The contaminated gases pass through a temperature-controlled environment, which is powered by a burner and combustion blower, reaching temperatures around 1400F - 1450F.