PCME - Passionate about Particulate

PCME’s involvement with carbon black manufacturers and related industries has led to the development of a unique range of particulate monitoring systems. Working in conjunction with some of the industry’s key players, PCME provide an unparalleled range of instrumentation suitable for application in the difficult particulate monitoring conditions associated with carbon black. These instruments not only protect our environment by aiding legislative compliance, but also decrease operator costs by helping to reduce filter maintenance costs and production downtime. Carbon black particulate is highly visible and difficult to monitor using light scatter type instruments, limiting the choice of technology which can be employed to effectively monitor emissions. PCME’s particulate monitoring systems overcome the problems normally associated with monitoring carbon black, including:

• Carbon black particulate coating and de-sensitising the sensing components, and short circuiting traditional probe electrification type instruments – PCME’s unique and patented ElectroDynamic™ Probe Electrification technology is unaffected by this build-up of particulate and will function with the probe rod completely coated.
• Corrosive condensate, which can potentially form in the flue gas from carbon black manufacturing due to the sulphur content of the feedstock, will corrode instruments without suitable protection. PCME offer high grade acid resistant components proven to last in these challenging conditions.

PCME offer approved (TUV & MCERTS) systems for particulate measurement, filter leak monitoring and filter performance monitoring, depending on the plant specific requirements which are specified in close consultation between plant operators and PCME. Carbon black plant typically demands monitoring on multiple emission points and filter plant, which can be addressed with a networked multichannel system. By offering a range of measurement technologies in reliable and rugged instruments, PCME are able to offer a full range of solutions to meet and often exceed legislative compliance, and significantly improve the operation of filter plant including a reduction in filter maintenance requirements.
 

Furnace Black Process

Emissions from the furnace black process include particulate matter, carbon monoxide (CO), organics, nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulphur compounds, polycyclic organic matter and trace elements. As the carbon black particulate is itself the product, the efficiency of the filtration plant is fundamental to the process, and effective filter performance monitoring is a critical component of the carbon black manufacturing process. The gas and carbon black mixture leaving the reactor via the main process vent is cooled and then channelled into the collecting system, which was formally a combination of electro-flocculators and cyclones or cyclones and filters, but is now most commonly a high performance, large multi-chamber bag filter system. In modern systems, the particulate emissions after bag filters in these applications can be as low as 5mg/m³.

Gas Black Process

Using partially vaporised coal tar oils and usually producing high quality pigment blacks, as much as half of the carbon black formed in the gas black process is suspended in the off-gas from the burner pipe. Consequently, the efficient management of the filtration system which filters the gas extracted from the process housing is a key part of maximising the yield from the gas black process.

Thermal Black & Acetylene Black Processes

These processes produce a more specialised grade of carbon black, for example such as that used in dry cell batteries, high performance rubbers and plastics manufacturing. As with all carbon black manufacturing, maximising the collection yield from the filtration plant is a key concern, but the processes tend to differ from furnace black and gas black plant, in that water spraying and cyclone filters are often in use, and therefore the gas stream is frequently humid and hence particulate monitoring concerns are slightly different.

Tyre Manufacturing

Both new and recycled tyre processing and manufacturing operations use hooded extraction systems, for example from materials transfer belts, talc processing, and raw material mixing (e.g. Banbury mixer plant for natural & synthetic rubber, carbon black and additives) in conjunction with bagfilter and scrubber abatement plant. Carbon black particulate is produced as part of the reverse polymerization process in the tyre recycling process. The nature of the particulate emissions and the specific concerns related to emissions monitoring are similar to those from the raw carbon black manufacturing process.

Sufficient minimum detection level for highly abated emissions:

PCME’s ElectroDynamic™ Probe Electrification technology has a minimum detection level (0.1mg/m³) suitable for highly abated emissions, such as those found after bagfilter plant in Carbon Black plant, including instrument approved to European QAL1 with certification range 0-15mg/m³ for Emission Limit Values as low as 10mg/m³.

Contamination Detection and Tolerance:

Short Circuit and Contamination Detection
With traditional Probe Electrification type instruments, performance can be compromised by contamination of the sensor probe insulator by conductive particulate matter such as carbon black. Over time, this build up can allow short circuit of the sensor probe via ‘bridging’ of the insulator, which is of particular concern in carbon black applications where conductive particulate matter is prevalent. PCME’s ElectroDynamic™ range of instruments includes a patented probe rod contamination check feature, which provides operators with a pre-warning check of possible probe rod short circuit, enabling predictive sensor maintenance scheduling, lower down times and confidence in signal quality (see PCME STACK 990).

Tolerance to Contamination
PCME’s unique and patented ElectroDynamic™ Probe Electrification technology allows sensors to operate normally with significant contamination build-up on the sensor rod, avoiding the signal drift issues associated with traditional probe electrification type instruments and offering greatly reduced maintenance requirements. Additionally, PCME’s patented insulated sensor rod option offers unrivalled performance in high humidity (non-condensing) applications.

Network Integration:

Carbon Black plant typically requires instrumentation across several emissions sources. PCME sensors can be networked into one central control unit, integrated with existing plant DCS/SCADA systems, and provide Ethernet connectivity for plant-wide LAN integration.

Quality Assurance:

Stricter compliance programs and more rigidly enforced emission limits within the carbon black industry mean that operators require an increased level of quality assurance, and confidence in their emissions monitoring systems to operate correctly and also minimise emission limit excursion events. PCME offer systems approved to the latest MCERTS & TUV standards, with manual or automated zero and span / reference drift checks for ongoing quality assurance, and other system self-checks such as short circuit and probe contamination and network communication checks to provide confidence in data integrity and to facilitate predictive maintenance scheduling.