Fume Treatments

If we take a global environmental approach, the impact on human health and ecosystems, the greenhouse effect and global warming, the uncontrolled production of ozone in cities, odour nuisance... are all good reasons for drastically limiting pollutant-laden gaseous emissions. These include particulates, sulfur compounds, nitrogen compounds, carbon dioxide and volatile organic compounds. The international community mobilized to combat the increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions through the Rio Convention, signed in June 1992. Since then, international conferences have been held, with varying degrees of success, in Kyoto and New York, focusing in particular on the issue of air pollution. More recently, in December 2015, the COP21 (21st Conference of the Parties) held in Paris, enabled a discussion between States on the management of gaseous emissions. This agreement should lead to a drastic reduction in certain pollutants present in emissions due to human activity. On a regulatory level, the practical consequences of European directives have led to the promulgation in France of various decrees regulating pollutant emission levels for certain industrial sectors. These include the decrees of February 2, 1998 and May 29, 2000, supplemented by industry-specific decrees. These few points are intended to demonstrate the need and/or obligation to reduce the pollutant loads emitted into the atmosphere by fumes. There are a number of processes that can help reduce these pollutant emissions and nuisances.

The aim of this dossier is to define qualitatively and quantitatively the pollutants emitted in flue gases, to introduce the regulatory texts in the field of pollution control, and to present methods for analyzing various undesirable compounds. Finally, it will suggest treatments available alone or as part of a flue gas cleaning system.