Requirements and challenges
The company had received a number of complaints from local residents regarding the odours.
They had obtained a number of very expensive quotes looking at abatement / carbon filtration for their spray booth discharge.
The paint spray booth ‘stack’ design was very poor with horizontal discharge; so we carried out VOC / stack emission monitoring and proved that the emission levels were well below Process Guidance note limits, so ideally no further odour control / filtration was required.
Stack Horizontal before correction
The problem was caused by the poor / horizontal stack discharge design. R&B Industrial were able to redesign the stack with vertical discharge and increase stack efflux velocity, whilst keeping within the existing fan performance, i.e. not increasing overall system resistance.
Further stack, structural support complications had to be overcome due to a (transport for London) railway bridge, which was beside the stack location; no support from the bridge could be made, i.e. All structural supports for the spray booth, stack discharge had to be from the ground.
Solutions
New Stack design
With the increase in efflux / exit velocity, there was a substantial increase in the effective ‘plume’ height, providing excellent dispersal of any odours.
Outcome
The new ‘stack’ design has now been in operation for approx 8 months, with no further complaints from residents.