Making a purchase for something huge like a regenerative thermal oxidizer, a catalytic oxidizer, or a heat recovery system can be pretty scary. You want to invest your money in something that will ultimately save you money—not something that will come to be complicated and break down, costing you further money in repairs.

This article is intended to help you make an educated choice on your regenerative thermal oxidizer. Much of this information can also be applied to catalytic oxidizers and heat recovery systems. You may find that you have the wrong idea about your heat recovery media placement in your system, or an actually incorrect heat recovery system.

This incorrect media sizing or type can result in your thermal oxidizer system getting plugged up and reduction in your thermal efficiency. If the heat recovery system is placed incorrectly, then you will have inefficiencies of process stream channeling. Make sure the company you are working with is giving you good information and knows what they are doing, because proper installation of your thermal systems means you’ll get better thermal efficiency and reduced air pollution.

Another issue: You’ll want to watch out for the proper plant particulate filtration. If you have improper filtration, you will end up with a particulate buildup in your stream that is intended to increase efficiency. With improper installation, it will actually worsen efficiency. There are plant gases that will go into the Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer and you will need to make sure your filtration system is actually catching the pollutants in the gases rather than letting them go through. You shouldn’t need to continually clean your filter if it is properly and well-done.

Lastly, one other consideration when purchasing thermal or catalytic oxidizers: compliance testing. There are companies who think that running everything above the permit standards for a city will be better, but sometimes more problems can come of this increase, if you don’t test to ensure that it is compatible with your company. Testing the regenerative thermal oxidizer equipment above the permit requirement. You may actually be required to run the thermal oxidizer on the given standard baseline compliance. You may also find that the higher running capabilities cause the machine to wear out faster, and you really didn’t benefit all that much from it. Keep these factors in mind to help you make a wise decision on your thermal or catalytic oxidizer system.