NEWS RELEASE FEBRUARY 2014
Billions of Dollars Will Be Spent For New Fabric Filter Technologies and Applications
The fabric filter industry is undergoing a radical change which promises to reshape the market. This is the conclusion of the McIlvaine Company in the continually updated, World Fabric Filter and Element Market.
One new technology is the ceramic filter element with embedded catalyst. Several suppliers have successfully combined NOx reduction and particulate removal with ceramic fibrous filter media with attached or embedded catalyst. This new media is a big improvement over older monolithic block designs which did not lend themselves to cleaning. Thousands of these elements are now in use on power generation facilities burning biomass and other solid fuels. Others are used in conjunction with driers and kilns.
The combination of membranes and application to pleated media is another step forward. Several developments involve mercury capture. One company just introduced a coating which will absorb mercury. Even though the mercury is not purged, there is enough capability to function at high efficiency through the expected two to three year life of the bag. Another variation uses a membrane module for mercury capture. Successful commercial experience has been obtained in Minnesota at a large coal-fired power plant.
The biggest change to the industry is going to come through the switching of coal-fired boilers to fabric filters and away from electrostatic precipitators. Potential markets in the U.S. and China would equal the entire present industrial fabric filter market. New regulations are making it very difficult to guarantee precipitator performance. Also, precipitator cost rises sharply as efficiency requirements rise. A precipitator achieving 99.8 percent efficiency is likely to be twice as large and expensive as one to meet 99 percent. Fabric filter cost is only slightly impacted by efficiency requirements.
For more information on World Fabric Filter and Element Market, click on: http://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php/markets/2-uncategorised/110-n021
