The Gerresheimer Group, one of the leading international manufacturers of glass and plastic primary packagings for the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, uses two melting tanks at its site in Essen. The planned modernization of one of the furnace and the higher production capacity associated with this means that the existing exhaust air purification system may no longer be able to achieve the clean gas values for dust and nitrogen oxide (NOx). In order to efficiently and cost-effectively prepare the existing system for the future increase in output, Luft- und Thermotechnik Bayreuth (LTB), a subsidiary of Dürr, developed an innovative concept with this special Ecopure® CCF.
The high melting temperatures required during glass production result in large quantities of pollutants. Gerresheimer merges the contaminated exhaust air from the two glass furnaces into one exhaust air purification system. In the future, half of the exhaust air will be treated in an Ecopure® CCF. This technology combines the three individual processes of exhaust air purification, enabling one system to precipitate dust, absorb sulfur, and reduce nitrogen oxides from the exhaust air. This is done using catalytic candle filters, whose ceramic fibers can withstand temperatures of up to 900°C. The exhaust air, treated in the Ecopure® CCF, is then returned to the existing system, where it mixes with the exhaust air purified there. The Ecopure® CCF ensures that the exhaust air as a whole complies with all required clean gas values. The investment costs for partial-flow treatment are therefore half of typical alternatives. This would have involved replacing the existing system completely with a new one or upgrading the existing system with a downstream system.
