Abstract
In the present work, the heat exchanging efficiency of a pilot-scale regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO) during the thermal decomposition of volatile organic compounds (VOC) was studied using toluene as an example of a typical VOC under the following experimental conditions : raw gas mass flow rates of 1090-2550kg·h−1, toluene decomposition temperatures of 973-1173K, honeycomb heights of 0.9-1.5m and valve switching intervals of 60-180s.
As a result, it was found that the thermal efficiency calculated from LPG fuel consumption and the decomposed toluene, gave a maximum value of 0.95 at a raw gas mass flow rate of 1810kg·h−1 in a honeycomb height of 1.5m. Furthermore, it was found that a decrease in honeycomb height from 1.5 to 0.9m caused insufficient preheating of the raw gas, which resulted in an increase in the concentration of toluene necessary in the raw gas from 340 to 530ppm to achieve self-combustion of the toluene without additional heating by LPG fuel.
