Company Finds Cartridge Dust Collectors to be the Gold Standard (continued)

Increasing filtration efficiency, decreasing dust emissions

Whenever Pioneer's engineers design new plants or renovate or expand existing plants, they focus on ways to reduce hazard potentials. "For this project, our engineers wanted a highly effective dust collection system that would pull all of the dust out of the facility and make it a safe, dustfree environment for the employees, especially the ones working in the facility's treatment area," says Allison Larson, Pioneer supply management communications manager. "And for safety and easy access to the dust collectors for maintenance checks and replacing filters, we had the engineering firm design and build platforms around the dust collectors and stairways to access the platforms."

"Our engineers say that for future plant upgrades we're going to continue using these types of dust collectors and cartridge filters because of their effectiveness," says Larson. "They're just so much cleaner and better for the environment than the previous cyclone separators were, and they've dramatically reduced the facility's dust emissions."

If the dust collection system is run properly, kept clean, and not exposed to a lot of moisture, its cartridge filters can last several years. "For this application," says Francois, "I suspect that Pioneer can get two or three seasons of use, or more, out of the filters before they have to think about replacing them."

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