Tire Manufacturing

Application: Rubber Mixing

Tire manufacturing is a multi-step process that uses natural rubber, structural filler materials, special additives, and curative agents to build tires for the transportation industry.  In the rubber mixing step, a Banbury mixer combines the compounds to provide the rubber, or "slap", required to form the tires.  Although not subject to NESHAP VOC requirements, tire manufacturers typically must control PM10 and PM2.5 emissions.

There are two type of emissions that evolve from a Banbury mixer: dry particulate emissions that occur during the loading of material into the mixer, and moist, hot fumes that emit after processing. The dry particulate emissions are controlled by a filter or baghouse. Often the moist emissions at the exit of a Banbury mixer are also routed to a baghouse, but these emissions present more of a challenge to the operation and maintenance staffs of tire manufacturers. Emissions at the exit of a Banbury mixer are moist, hot, and sticky. These type of emissions are prone to foul the baghouse, clog the ductwork and decrease the availability of the Banbury mixer.

Baghouses excel with dry, non-sticky, inorganic emissions.  Baghouses have more difficulty with sticky organic emissions, because sticky emissions bind the filters and increase the pressure drop across the baghouse.  As an alternative, Envitech supplies Venturi scrubbers to tire manufacturers that need to control emissions downstream of the Banbury mixer.

Venturi scrubbers excel at capturing sticky particulate. A Venturi scrubber captures by particulate by mechanical impaction. Water sprays perpendicularly into an accelerated gas.  The momentum of the particulate in the gas causes it to crash into the water and is captured   As an added benefit, a Venturi scrubber captures PM2.5 condensables that pass through a baghouse as a vapor.

Envitech has supplied over a dozen large capacity, fully functional Venturi scrubbers for the capture of emissions from Banbury mixers. Recently, Envitech has modified its point of use Venturi scrubber for the control of emissions at vents and cleanouts for the tire and rubber industries. Envitech Venturi scrubbers are fully assembled, require only the connection of utilities for immediate emissions abatement, and are excellent at capturing PM10 and PM2.5 condensables.

Exhaust Sources: Tire manufacturing, rubber manufacturing, Banbury mixers

EPA Standards: National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)

Pollutants:

• PM2.5
• PM10

Equipment

• Venturi scrubbers