Checking Your Catalyst Bed
Last week we talked about the importance of a fully functional heat exhanger (both plate type and shell and tube type) in your catalytic oxidizer in order to ensure VOC destruction. Once the heat exchanger integrity is verified, what if you're still not getting optimal VOC destruction? If that's the case, you should probably check your catalyst bed.
Why is the catalyst bed so important? The major difference between a catalytic oxidizer and a thermal oxidizer is the presence of that catalyst bed, which allows the oxidation of VOCs to occur at a reduced temperature (only 600-650F). To ensure proper dwell time of the VOCs in the catalyst, all air must be channeled through the bed, and that's where all VOC destruction occurs. So what steps should you use to troubleshoot your catalyst bed?
There are two major kinds of catalyst beds: Bead catalyst beds and monolith (block) catalyst beds. Regardless of the type, the first step in troubleshooting is to visually inspect the beds. How do you do that? What are you looking for? We'll get more specific tomorrow.