Solving widespread low-concentration VOC air pollution problems: Gas-phase photocatalytic oxidation answers the needs of many small businesses

摘要

Many small businesses are facing new regulations under the 1990 Amendments to the Clean Air Act. Regulators, as well as the businesses themselves, face new challenges to control small point-source air pollution emissions. An individual business, such as a dry cleaner, auto repair shop, bakery, coffee roaster, photo print shop, or chemical company, may be an insignificant source of air pollution, but collectively, the industry becomes a noticeable source. Often the businesses are not equipped to respond to new regulatory requirements because of limited resources, experience, and expertise. Also, existing control strategies may be inappropriate for these businesses, having been developed for major industries with high volumes, high pollutant concentrations, and substantial corporate resources. Gas-phase photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) is an option for eliminating low-concentration, low-flow-rate emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from small business point sources. The advantages PCO has over other treatment techniques are presented in this paper. This paper also describes how PCO can be applied to specific air pollution problems. We present our methodology for identifying pollution problems for which PCO is applicable and for reaching the technology's potential end users. PCO is compared to other gas-phase VOC control technologies.