Food industry – odour and emission reduction

As a rule, yes. Exhaust air from frying, roasting and smoking equipment contains not only gaseous odour compounds but also fat and oil droplets and soot particles. If these reach the catalyst unfiltered, they clog the surface, can carbonise and noticeably reduce the cleaning performance. For this reason, pre-separation is usually planned upstream of the catalyst, for example with grease filters, aerosol separators or thermal pretreatment. The right solution depends on the fat load, the exhaust air temperature and the cleaning effort you can manage in day-to-day operation. Maintenance access to the filters should also be considered from the outset so that filter changes and cleaning can be carried out without major effort. If a catalyst is already coated with fat or oil residues, chemical cleaning can often restore its activity. Describe your process, production hours and existing exhaust air ducting to us, and we will check which pre-separation suits your plant.

Yes, this is often possible and is considered during the design phase. In catalytic oxidation, organic substances in the exhaust air are converted into carbon dioxide and water vapour. This releases reaction heat, and the cleaned gas leaves the catalyst at a higher temperature. This heat can be used via a heat exchanger, for example to preheat the exhaust air to be treated, to produce hot water or thermal oil, or to support drying and roasting processes. How much heat can usefully be recovered depends on the pollutant concentration, the flow rate, the operating hours and whether there is a suitable heat consumer on site. In plants with frequent downtimes or frequently changing recipes, the balance looks different from that of continuous operation. If you provide us with your exhaust air data and your heat demand, we will check whether heat recovery makes technical and economic sense for your process.