Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Zahra Soltanian zade ¹
• Mohsen MirMohammadi ²
• Mohammad Ali Zahed ³

¹ College of Environment, University of Tehran (Kish Campus), P.O.Box 39982-79416,Kish island, Iran

² College of Environment, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

³ 3 College of Biology, University of Kharazmi, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Introduction: Aromatic hydrocarbons such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene isomers (BTEX) are pollutants in industrial plants that cause problems in various sources, especially air. Elimination of these toxic compounds, even to a very small extent, from these constant sources of pollutants is important not only from an environmental but also from an economic point of view. Nowadays, the rapid industrialization of societies, especially developing countries, to meet the needs of citizens is recognized as the main cause of air pollution. Therefore, maintaining environmental standards is necessary to reduce the potential for pollutions and support sustainable development. Waterproofing production plants are one of the main sources of emissions of this group of pollutants, so the implementation of control measures and optimization of the performance of these industrial units in Delijan city as the capital of Waterproofing production is necessary and undeniable.
Material and Methods: In this study, the process of removing BTEX contaminants from Izogam Parsian Delijan factory has been evaluated and studied through simulation and process modification based on insulator design and using thermal oxidation of pollutants (BTEX) method. Questions related to the efficiency and environmental benefits of designing incinerator serve as the primary motivation for the present work. The purpose of this study is to help this evidence by assessing the environmental and technical evaluation of the performance of the incinerator unit in a BW production plant located in Delijan-Iran. Moreover, energy consumption and pollutant emissions of system have been optimized by changing the temperature and residence time of incinerator using SPSS software. It should be noted that the process of removing BTEX contaminants has been accomplished by simulation using Aspen Hysys software. In this regard, the process modification based on the Incinerator designing and using the thermal oxidation method has been evaluated.
 
Results: Based on the results, the temperature and residence time in optimal conditions are 732 and 0.84, respectively. Furthermore, the incinerator's control efficiency (CF) reveals that 98.5% of BTEX compounds in the exhaust gases were removed. It should be noted that the system's energy efficiency has also improved significantly in such a way that the amount of fuel consumed by the system in optimum condition has decreased by 23% compared to the initial state.have been optimized by implementing software such as SPSS and hardware elements. The results of using the incinerator in this study, the rate of control efficiency (CEF) of the device in removing the desired compounds is reported to be 98.5%. Also, the energy consumption index in this case, compared to the performance of the system without insulator in the same mode, has caused a 23% reduction in fuel consumption.
Discussion: The optimization results revealed that using incinerator in certain condition can be considered as an applicable solution for removing BTEX from industrial activities. In this regard, temperature and residence time can be determined as two significant operating indexes affecting the pollutants emission and energy consumption. According to the results, the proposed method has acceptable environmental and economic performance thus, It is also suggested the possibility of large investments to reduce the effects of BTEX pollutants in the region by coupling them to renewable energies.

Keywords

• BTEX
• Optimization
• Air Pollution
• Thermal Oxidation