Aspiration is an air purification system in hazardous industries

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

The production of many types of products is associated with the formation of dust suspensions that prevent workers from breathing and threaten their he alth. Cement plants, crushers, mills, enterprises of the chemical, metallurgical industries and many other economic sectors faced the problem of clean air in the workshops immediately after their appearance.

Dust and other dangerous contaminants were tried to be fought by issuing personal protective equipment (called respirators and representing the simplest breathing filters), but these were not very effective. In recent decades, in developed manufacturing companies, a more effective means for creating normal working conditions, aspiration, has become increasingly popular. This word shares the Latin root "spiro" with respirator, meaning "breath".

The task of the aspiration system

It is impossible to work without ventilation at the mentioned enterprises, called hazardous production. With the removed air, variousdangerous and unpleasant impurities. Actually, it was this fact that inspired the engineers to increase the degree of purification, creating the most favorable conditions for the passage of the dust-air mixture.

The aspiration system is a set of technical means that ensures the removal of suspended impurities from the working areas of industrial premises in order to reduce their concentration and impact on the human body, as well as their disposal. In other words, it is created so that people can breathe easily, and the factory or plant does not harm the environment.

Suction pipe and fan

The most important thing in this system is the pipe. But not simple, but special, made so that dust does not get stuck in it and does not accumulate. It is quite possible to use straight-seam pipes, but spiral-wound pipes, similar to vacuum cleaner hoses, perform their function better. But the subtleties do not end there: the slope of the duct also matters. Dust can be very heavy (for example, cement), so the design of aspiration is carried out taking into account the specific nature of impurities, their physical and chemical properties. The laying pattern is most often branched, has turns, characterized by a relative rounding, the radius of which must be at least twice the diameter of the pipe.

The pressure gradient at the inlet-inlet and outlet can be created by a level difference, but the fan still gives the desired flow rate, without which high-quality aspiration is impossible. This is, as a rule, a classic low-pressure "snail" (sometimesseveral).

Waste treatment

What to do with polluted air? Just throwing it into the atmosphere is not only unethical in relation to residents of adjacent urban or rural areas, but is also fraught with hefty amounts of fines imposed on industries whose management does not want to treat the environment with due respect. Therefore, it makes direct sense to separate harmful inclusions. This problem is solved by two devices connected in series in the pipeline - a separator and a filter.

The collected "garbage" in some cases can be used for recycling, but even then its volume should be reduced, so it is pressed and collected in special containers.

So, if the air purification system consists of a pipeline, a pump, a separator, a filter and a collection of recyclable waste, then this is aspiration. Ventilation is only part of it, providing pneumatic transportation of the air-dust mixture.

Monoblock suction systems

With all the simplicity of the principle of action, there are various ways to implement it. The most widespread is the monoblock scheme, in which dust removal devices are installed at each workplace that pollutes the air. They are stationary or mobile. Such aspiration is an analogue of the already mentioned vacuum cleaner with its own hopper to be cleaned regularly, its own fan (air pump) and a short air duct, which, depending on the degreemobility is a flexible hose or a rigidly installed pipe. Monoblocks are mass-produced, which is the reason for their relatively low cost.

Modular systems

Large productions with a strong dust content of working spaces cannot do with monoblock aspiration devices. High performance is required with ease of maintenance, because the constant need to clean a large number of small collectors is too laborious. In this case, a typical approach is very rare, except that the production cycle itself is standardized, and it provides for such an important system as aspiration at the design stage. This happens when a particular type of mill or plant is delivered on a turnkey basis and meets the highest environmental standards. More often, firms involved in solving the problem of air pollution in the working area are involved in the modernization of long-running industries that require individual study of all technological aspects.