Ecotechnics

The device usually consists of two or three insulated chambers filled with ceramic fillings (structured honeycombs or pelletized ceramics) and connected by a system of valves. A combustion chamber with a burner is often located in the upper part, which connects the chambers. Operation is cyclical: in the first phase, polluted air flows into chamber A, where it passes through a heated ceramic bed and is heated almost to the reaction temperature. It then enters the central combustion zone (or the upper part of the chamber, if there is a burner in each chamber) and is heated there by a burner to ~800 °C, at which the VOCs are converted into CO₂ and H₂O by combustion. The hot flue gases continue to chamber B, where they transfer heat to the ceramic filling and cool down. The clean, cooled gases then exit into the chimney. In the meantime, chamber C (if a third one is present) can undergo a so-called purge – clean air washes out residual VOCs from it to prevent leakage when switching modes. Then, after a set interval, the flow direction is switched: the role of the chambers is reversed (A accumulates heat, B transfers heat to the incoming air, etc.). This cyclical process ensures that the ceramic fillings capture most of the heat and the heat recovery efficiency reaches up to ~95%. Thanks to this, only a relatively small burner power is required to maintain a high temperature. The RTO unit thus removes VOCs with an efficiency of over 99% and at the same time significantly saves fuel. The system is effective over a wide concentration range – it works reliably at both low and high VOC concentrations, which makes it a very flexible solution for various operations.