Thermal oxidation
The traditional way to deal with VOCs from industrial processes is to superheat these carbon-based compounds to approx. 800–1100°C. This causes oxidation that breaks these pollutants down into clean, harmless vapor (usually water and carbon dioxide) and heat.
However, thermal oxidization involves burning off large quantities of fossil fuels, and very little of the thermal energy can be recovered.
Catalytic oxidation
Instead of using expensive direct heat and high temperatures, catalytic oxidation systems rely on the chemical effectiveness of advanced catalytic activity to oxidize the pollutant concentrations and to remove these problematic substances from exhaust streams.
Such catalyst-based processes mean oxidation removes 99+% of VOC pollutants at temperatures as low as 200–250°C, and with hardly any additional fuel costs.
