Operational and Regulatory Implications of Dust Collection System MonitoringOperational and Regulatory Implications of Dust Collection System Monitoring

Manufacturing facilities are complex ecosystems where many different pieces of equipment must interact properly for the process to function smoothly. Actual production processes are viewed as mission critical, with any issues causing major production disruptions. Others are viewed as ancillary; important but not essential for production to continue. Often capital investment and maintenance priorities reflect this distinction.

The practical reality is that in many manufacturing operations dust collection systems are benignly neglected - until there’s a dust excursion when they suddenly become critical to production.

Evolutions in triboelectric monitoring technology offer operational value that earlier versions, with which many of today’s manufacturing managers are most familiar, did not. Using triboelectric detection can reduce costs and improve uptime in several ways.

Identify Leaks Before They Become Catastrophic
Dust collectors have to work perfectly, all the time. If even just one filter among thousands suffers a leak, the entire system can begin to exceed its emissions limits. And the price of exceeding emissions limits even very briefly can be quite high.

The implications of exceedances are well known, but not always fully recognized. They include:
* Extensive, time-consuming documentation and reporting by compliance personnel. Failure to report as required can result in penalties.
* In some applications where hazardous materials are collected, release into the atmosphere can jeopardize the health of nearby residents, as well as workers within the facility. Harmful levels of exposure are expensive in many ways - not just the financial implications.
* In facilities that collect combustible dusts, leaking filters can allow unsafe accumulations of combustible dust throughout the system and facility posing an immense and immediate danger to workers and property.

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Even in situations without dire consequences, a cumbersome leak detection and identification process can still result in substantial abatement obligations.

The problem is that detecting and locating leaking filters has traditionally been quite challenging. Due to limits of detection sensitivity, by the time a noticeable change in stack opacity occurs, a system is often well beyond acceptable emissions levels required by its air permit. In fact, opacity monitors typically cannot register a problem until the system has already exceeded its limits. And because of light and climate influences, the system could have been in excess of its emissions limits for hours if not days before it’s detected by opacity, or other less sensitive means of detection.

By using a triboelectric bag leak detection system operators can monitor emissions data in realtime, down to 0.000002 g/dscf. Triboelectric systems also provide trending data - a capability that allows for more accurate monitoring of dust collector performance than differential pressure or opacity meters. This insight into trends highlights sudden spikes and gradual emissions increases that indicate a leak. Multiple alarm levels, well below the reportable limits, provide maintenance teams time to respond with corrective action to prevent the situation from escalating to a reportable event level.  

Find and Replace Leaking Filters Quicker
Detecting gradual or rapid increases in emissions is relatively simple - pinpointing the source, though, is often devilishly hard. Dye leak testing an entire system can take days, and often requires inconvenient and disruptive shutdowns of the baghouse and connected systems while technicians conduct the test.

Triboelectric BLDS installed at the compartment outlet can dramatically reduce the time necessary for this process - in many cases even pinpointing to the actual row that is leaking. Using the data collected by bag leak detectors during a cleaning cycle, problem filters can be identified. And with sensitivity capabilities, and centralized data monitoring and collection, gradual bag deterioration can be observed. This allows facilities to replace bags as required based on actual performance, rather than routinely replacing all bags proactively to avoid excursions that they wouldn’t have been able to predict.

Of course detecting leaks within minutes, rather than days substantially reduces the amount of remediation required when dust excursions do occur.¹

Prevent System Downtime
Downtime is hugely expensive - both directly in lost production, and indirectly in a myriad of ways. As systems become more complex and co-dependent, an issue in one can disrupt operations factory wide. Dust collection is often a function that’s just assumed to operate - whether reducing emissions, capturing product, reducing EH&S risks, or even providing recirculated warm air to a facility. But when it malfunctions, it’s suddenly top of mind.

The net cost of downtime varies by industry. A 2006 survey of the auto industry by ThomasNet found that downtime cost $22,000/minute!1 Your industry, company, and factory will have its own set of factors, but in just minutes or hours the cost of downtime quickly exceeds the cost of an entire triboelectric predictive monitoring system to prevent it. That is why companies schedule preventative maintenance shutdowns, and it is why early warning of deteriorating performance is critical to the overall financial performance of manufacturing facilities - particularly when it is delivered at a modest relative cost.

Triboelectric systems reduce downtime by preemptively detecting leaks at a very early stage before they escalate to a point where the increased emissions cause a shutdown of the system. This includes leaks caused by physical damage to the bag (tears, rips, abrasion, etc.) and increased emissions that occur at the end of the bags useful service life.

Subtle data trends logged, collected, and flagged by a system of networked detectors and centralized monitoring enable “predictive maintenance” capabilities. The sensitivity of triboelectric equipment provides sufficiently early warning to allow personnel the ability to determine the severity of the leak and decide on an appropriate course of action - and schedule it appropriately based on the severity. For example, if the data shows a gradual increase in emissions (indicating the filters have reached the end of their service life) maintenance planners might begin preparations to replace the entire set of filters. They can begin ordering replacement filters and scheduling a changeout for the next most convenient opportunity (perhaps the next maintenance shutdown).

This effectively eliminates unplanned shutdowns caused by sudden filter failure, and therefore also precludes the costs from related damage, remediation, and reporting associated with a malfunctioning collection system.

Conclusion
Companies have a choice. Engineers and maintenance teams that are accustomed to systems that are only capable of alerting once an incident is occurring may assume they are consigned to a world of emergency response. And some past experience with older outdated triboelectric systems may make them skeptical. But today’s triboelectric dust monitoring provides predictive capabilities that allow for early detection, speedy diagnosis, problem location, and proactive planning and scheduling.

    Earl Parker is senior vice president of sales and operations with Auburn Systems. Auburn provides monitoring solutions and has more than 35,000 installations worldwide. Auburn’s bag leak detection systems are recognized by the US EPA and were the selected equipment for the development of the EPA’s Fabric Filter Guidance Document used for all MACT standards involving fabric filter collectors. For more information, visit auburnsys.com.

¹ http://news.thomasnet.com/companystory/downtime-costs-auto-industry-22k-minute-survey-481017

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