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Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
The authoritative public forum
for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Scrubbing phenol and styrene
Q. My company is involved in manufacturing FRP grating. In grating manufacturing process we use phenol & also styrene compound which creates strong odor.
We approached a air pollution consultant who recommended using packed bag scrubber (Tellerette) & sodium hypochlorite to neutralize the compound.
Another consultant recommends only cold water to remove these pollutant.
My question is whether using sodium hypochlorite is a better solution compared to cold water.
Polymer Composite Asia - Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia
2005
2006
A. Hi Patrick,
First off, we only used frp as a reinforcer for thermoplastics, secondly my background has been mainly with inertial capture, ie. 12 and 3 micron horizontal scrubbers.
The suppliers of 'packing' (my competition in a lot of cases) will obviously extol the virtues of their packing, Tri-Pack, Tellerettes, Norton interlox etc. The smaller the packing, the greater the 'efficiency'(?) and the greater the cost and the SP.
But you have a dual problem. Solvents and phenols. Ideally one 'burns' off solvents but that's not viable for any ordinary FRP mfg. operation.
Water or hypochlorite? Good point. For the plating Industries Bright Dip EVERYONE was using NaOH until by happenchance one Company used water with success (Nitric/phosphoric mix).
I don't have any experience with solvents ... and don't like them because normally our inertial scrubbers are made of PVC and/or PP.... it's a question of miscibility, isn't it, as far as you are concerned.
I'd suggest why not START with water and see how it goes.
Sorry that I can't be of more help.
STOP. There's one more possibility ... that is odour control. There's one Company called ODERCHEM which specializes in this field.
Freeman Newton [deceased]
(It is our sad duty to advise that Freeman passed away
April 21, 2012. R.I.P. old friend).
A. Wet scrubbers which use alkaline+permanganates can solve your problem with styrene and other aromatic VOC in your workshop.
Mansoor EqdamGRP Home composite - Helsingborg Sweden
February 4, 2016
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