Processes and Equipment for
Air Pollution Control
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UR KNOWLEDGE OF AIR POLLUTION has increased vastly since the first Englishman was hanged for creating too much smoke. We now know that smoke is not a necessary evil and can be controlled. Yet in the minds of many, our air pollution problems have not decreased. Anyone who follows the public clamor in the major cities of the world for abatement processes and methods soon appreciates that a greater effort is being demanded to ensure clean air. There are many factors tending to increase the amount of air pollution. Notable among these are increases in population, shifting of industry, greater consumption of power per capita, and new developments that permit much larger quantities of material to be handled in single locations. Industry and the public have created problems undreamed of a few years ago. We are at this moment creating still others, some of which we can anticipate and some of which we cannot. To mention only a few, the problems of ice fog obscuring visibility, origin of ozone in the atmosphere, widespread eye irritation, and crop damage from community operations, and radioactive waste products were not with us a few years ago. If we can judge from historical events, new problems will develop as industry continues to move into previously unindustrialized areas; also as industry continues to apply remedial methods, the problems created by the general public will become more apparent. It is no longer sufficient for the engineer to design control methods for obviously noxious aerial waste but he must now consider those materials such as hydrocarbons which heretofore have been thought of as innocuous. There are many things we need to learn. As engineers we know it is not feasible to eliminate all pollution but-how much is enough? How can we be certain where to compromise between cost and efficiency of control? Here we need help from many sources because these questions must be answered by a community of people. Some will be answered by the general public, some by specialized interests, and some by law. The engineering profession is not unaware of the demands being placed upon it for new and more economical methods for preventing impurities from reaching the atmosphere. There is hardly a source of pollution today that cannot be substantially improved by means at hand, oroviding we are willing to disregard costs. Unfortunately there are no problems where costs can be disregarded. The engineer must develop and adapt the best physical principles to available materials in order to devise processes that economy will tolerate. As so frequently happens, advances in engineering are the result of interaction among technologies. As one example, it will be noted in this session that there is a strong emphasis on new developments in the use of filters. These would not have been possible had not the engineer been provided with new filtering media with which to work, and with some of the fundamental principles of their operation provided by the physicist. Each industry has its problems, most of which are being attacked with vigor. There is hardly an industrial plant that is not in one way or another affected by trace quantities of dusts in its product or effluent streams. The new developments in cleaning these materials at high temperatures are of utmost significance. There is much yet to be learned and it will require the combined and harmonious efforts of the chemists, physicists, engineers, and management to make the most of what we now have. Team effort will be required to place more information on a quantitative basis and to develop even better abatement methods. PAUL L. MAGILL, Chairman
Modern Electrical Precipitation Harry J. White..
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Collecting High Resistivity Dusts and Fumes W a y n e T. Sproull..
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932
940
Fly Ash Separators for High Pressures and Temperatures J. I. Yellott and P. R. Broadley.. 944
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Mechanical Electrostatic Charging o f Fabrics for Air Filters Leslie Silverman, Edward W. Conners, Jr., and David M. Anderson.,
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952
Design Considerations in Filtration o f Hot Gases C. A. Snyder and R.T. Pring..
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B
960
Catalytic Reactivation o f Activated Carbon in Air Purification Systems Amos Turk..
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Photochemical Oxidation o f Sulfur Dioxide in Air Earl R. Gerhard and H. F. Johnstone.
972
Sources o f Air Pollution Literature' Janet B. Murk..
976
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Presented before the Division of Chemical Literature a t the 124th Meeting of the AMERICAN CHEMICAL S o c m y , Chicago, 111. 1
M a y 1955
INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY
The Symposium on Processes and Equipment for Air Pollution Control was a presentation of the ACS Divisions of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry and Water, Sewage, and Sanitation Chemistry at the 126th Meeting of the American Chemical Society, New York, N. Y.
931
