VOC Abatement with Fumes-to-Fuel Technology
Climate Technologies is the exclusive distributor worldwide for the combined VOC abatement and power generation technology known as “Fumes-to-Fuel”. This technology can turn your air environmental abatement problems into an energy-producing asset.
OverviewVolatile Organic Compounds (“VOC’s”) are produced or released in a wide variety of industrial and commercial processes. EPA regulations require that these compounds must be abated (reduced or eliminated) to mitigate their impact on human health and the environment. In most industrialized countries throughout the world, state and local governments, as well as regulatory agencies like the EPA, require VOC abatement. The cost of installing and operating the equipment necessary to meet these regulations is being felt in many industries that deal with VOCs, such as:
- Paint Operations and Manufacturers
- Ethanol Production
- Fiberglass Product Manufacturing
- Chemical and Petrochemical Industries
- Oil Refining
- Printing Processes
- Pulp and Paper
- Adhesives and Resin Manufacturing
- Engineered Wood Products
- Coating and Laminating Operations
- Semiconductors and Electronics
Traditional methods of abatement capture the VOC emissions and burn them in natural gas-fired incinerators because the concentrations of the emissions are too low to sustain combustion on their own.
For a typical industrial application these incinerators (also known as thermal oxidizers) commonly cost from $0.7 to 5 million to build. The natural gas consumed to burn the VOC emissions could cost as much as $0.5 to 1 million per year.
Fortunately, Climate Technologies can now offer you a new VOC abatement solution that reduces your upfront and operating costs and improves performance. The new technology can even provide electricity and marketable greenhouse gas and emissions credits as byproducts.
Fumes-to-Fuel: An Efficient, Cost Effective Alternative
In 2003, engineers and scientists from Detroit Edison (“DTE”) and the Ford Motor Company worked together to develop a method to capture VOC emissions and concentrate them in a fluidized bed concentrator so that they could be used as a fuel source or condensed and recycled.
The fuel could then be utilized to generate energy, as opposed to the vast consumption of energy required by the typical abatement process.
The joint venture between Ford and DTE culminated in the successful alpha testing of the Fumes-to-Fuel technology in 2003 at the Ford Rouge plant in Dearborn, Michigan. A beta test of the technology was carried out at the Ford Michigan Truck plant in Wayne, Michigan.
Ford and DTE have received US and International patents for the Fumes-to-Fuel concept. In 2003, Ford received the Clean Air Excellence Award from the US Environmental Protection Agency.
The Fumes to Fuel system earned Ford the US Environmental Protection Agency Clean Air Excellence Award in 2003.
Climate Technologies participated with Ford and DTE in the conceptual design, development, and acquisition of the hardware required to complete the Fumes to Fuel alpha and beta test sites.
Currently, Climate Technologies holds the exclusive worldwide licensing rights to market the patented technologies.
Costs and Benefits of the Fumes-to-Fuel Technology
The equipment costs of a traditional VOC abatement system are usually about 10-20% higher than a Fumes-to-Fuel system. The cost benefit of the new technology comes primarily from not needing any additional natural gas to destroy the VOC’s.
Once captured and concentrated, the VOC’s can be condensed and recycled, burned without the need for natural gas fuel to generate process heat, or burned in an engine or reformed and used in a fuel cell to generate electricity.
Ford has estimated that the Fumes-to-Fuel life cycle cost is 20-35% of the cost of a traditional VOC abatement system based upon the historical price of natural gas.
The following PDF documents provide more information about our Fumes-to-Fuel system and how it can cleanly convert your VOC emissions to valuable electrical power.
For more information about how our Fumes-to-Fuel technology can save you money on VOC abatement, please contact us.