A GUIDE TO THE SELECTION OF FILTER MEDIA FOR BAGHOUSE APPLICATIONS 1

A baghouse filter is a dust removal device employing a fabric which acts as a barrier to remove particulate from a gas or liquid stream. It can contain anything from a few to many thousands of metres of fabric.

Filterbags are a vital part of an industrial separation process therefore selecting the right product is of paramount importance. Although they normally account for a relatively small part of the total cost of the collector system they are one of the most critical factors governing success.

Many factors must be taken into consideration in filtration, most importantly that the filter media is capable of retaining solid particles within an application but still allows a gas or liquid to pass through.

Emissions of pollutant dusts and fumes to the environment and the workplace are subject to ever more stringent legislative control and scrutiny which has driven the demand for more efficient and effective filter media. Dust and fumes, toxic or not, must be removed to protect health and the environment. In some cases the solid particulate carried in the gas or liquid flow represents a useful or valuable product, which must be efficiently separated or filtered for final use or further processing.

The choice of media for a given filtration application is determined by the environment in which the filtration will take place.

Temperature – with filtration applications sub-divided into two groups: low temperature filtration (milling, grinding, mixing and bagging operations) and high temperature filtration (utility boilers, incinerators, dryers or kilns)
Adverse gas and chemical conditions -Ability of the fabric to resist degradation from expected levels of acids, alkalis, solvents and oxidising agents
Humidity- Resistance to Hydrolysis at expected temperature and humidity levels
Dimensional stability-The fabric must be expected to resist shrinkage and stretching at the expected temperatures and gas conditions
For retrofit, history of existing application

Donaldson Membrane’s Tetratex® Microporous ePTFE membrane filter media has a proven track record as a very high efficiency, highly effective fabric filter media, with several different membrane types available to achieve, subject to various parameters, the desired performance: Tetratex, Tetratex Release, High Efficiency and Ultra High Efficiency. These high performance laminates supply superior dust cake release, low pressure drop, higher air flow, and high efficiency.