NEWS RELEASE                                                                                                                APRIL 2013

Mining Air Pollution Control Purchases to Exceed $2 Billion This Year

Mining companies from Chile to China will spend over $2 billion for air pollution equipment, services and consumables in 2013. This is the conclusion reached in the McIlvaine online report Air Pollution Management.

Nearly $800 million will be spent for new air pollution control systems. $1.3 billion will be spent on parts, service and consumables. The emission sources can be segmented into mechanically generated dust and then a second segment which includes products of combustion and drying.

Mechanically generated dusts are generally captured by fabric filters. At various points in copper, bauxite, coal and iron mining operations, dusty ore is transferred from one process to another. Hoods at the transfer points capture the dust and convey it to fabric filters. Fabric filters or scrubbers are also utilized in particle reduction processes.

Dryers are significant dust generators. The coal industry uses scrubbers and fabric filters for drying operations. Drying processes are common in various metallic and non-metallic mining operations.

Pelletizing and smelting require more efficient types of air pollution control equipment than are required to capture mechanical dusts. Fabric filters have gained market share from scrubbers which were widely used in previous decades. Fabric filters are more efficient in capturing the sub-micron fumes. As emission limits have tightened, plants have switched to fabric filters to remain in compliance. Another incentive has been to capture product which otherwise would be lost. Fabric filters in gold mining operations can capture enough product in a few weeks to offset the investment.

Wet electrostatic precipitators are the choice for capturing the acid mists from copper smelting. Dry electrostatic precipitators are used to treat the exhausts from power boilers at mining operations.

Continuous measurement of opacity, NO_x, SO₂ and certain other pollutants is required for many furnace and dryer operations. Advanced process automation of these operations relies on instrumentation at both the inlet and outlet of the processes.

The consumables include bags for the fabric filters. In a furnace application they are typically replaced every three to four years. Rappers, discharge electrodes and other precipitator components are also periodically replaced. A number of replacement parts are required for the dust handling systems.

For more information on Air Pollution Management, click on: http://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48#n5ab