NEWS RELEASE                                                                                                    AUGUST 2014

Fabric Filter Market Could Be $4 Billion Larger If Catalytic Filter Is Adopted

The world fabric filter systems market will be much larger in 2017 if catalytic filter technology is adopted.  This is the conclusion of the McIlvaine Company in World Fabric Filter and Element Market.

($ Millions)     

  

Subject

  		   

2017

  

w/o CF

  		   

2017

  

With CF

  

Bags

 3,276  

5,000

Equipment

 4,065  

7,000

Media

 1,852  

,3500

Systems

 8,942  

14,000

The forecast without a major technology change is for 2017 fabric filter system revenues of $8.9 billion. This forecast assumes that electrostatic precipitators will remain the choice for coal-fired power plant operators.  However, a new option has become available. The catalytic filter can remove particulate, NOx and acid gases.  If operated at 850oF, it will allow for the maximum energy recovery.  If operated at 500oF, the materials of construction costs are lower and mercury can be removed. There are sorbents which can remove mercury at 500oF but not 850oF.

Power plants account for 50 percent of all the gas exhausted from the world’s industrial plants. Ninety-five of the power plants exhaust flows through electrostatic precipitators. New regulations in China, the U.S. and other countries are making it difficult to meet the new particulate standards with precipitators.  These devices do not remove NOx. They are not suited to remove acid gases and mercury even with large amounts of reagent.

One choice to meet the new regulations is to upgrade the existing precipitator, install an SCR system and install an FGD system. The cost to make these additions at a 500 MW plant is $200 million. For less than $100 million a catalytic filter system can be installed. Another benefit is more extracted heat and an efficiency improvement of 3 percent.  This results in hundreds of thousands of tons less CO2 being discharged.

  • Catalytic filters are proving to be reliable on difficult applications such as waste incineration.  The only question is lack of experience on coal-fired applications.  To further analyze this very attractive potential, McIlvaine has set up a free website on the subject:Hot Gas Filters - Continuous Analyses

A series of webinars are being conducted.  The next one is September 4, 2014.

For more information on World Fabric Filter and Element Market, click on: http://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php/markets/2-uncategorised/110-n021