Applications of Bag Filters in Different Industries
Bag filter applications are the backbone of industrial fluid filtration systems. No other filtration method can handle the high flow rates that bag filters can withstand. Woven and nonwoven materials are both used in bag filter applications.
Nonwoven material constructions include needle felts, carded and melt-blown nonwovens. Metallurgical processing operations need to meet emissions control requirements at the lowest total cost reliably. Learn how these bags help reduce operating costs by promoting improved airflow and energy utilization.
1. Brewing & Distilling
Bag filtration systems are very popular in brewing and distilling operations. Breweries can turn their spent grain into a trendy Cognac-style brandy or use grape residuals unsuitable for winemaking to produce grappa. Industrial bag filters VA work by filtering dust particles out of the gas stream.
The bags can be made from many materials, such as woven mono and multi-filament fabrics, needle felts, melt-blown nonwoven fibers, or spun bonded webs. Often, they have handles for ease of removal and disposal. They are installed in a filter vessel with a support basket to prevent them from bursting under high differential pressures.
A dust monitor is often installed downstream of the bag filter to find dust concentration increases before it becomes problematic. It can reduce operational costs by optimizing the replacement frequency of the filter bags and reducing the waste disposal cost by finding minor dust increases.
2. Oil & Gas
Bag filters are used to filter liquids in a wide variety of applications. In the oil & gas industry, they are often part of larger systems that remove impurities and solid particles from fracking fluids and other production liquids. The liquid is then reused or pumped downhole.
Bags may be constructed from mesh, multilayer felt, polypropylene or pleated woven fabrics. They can be inserted into a housing vessel with a perforated metal cage or a plastic basket that holds the bags in place during operation. The filter design should be based on the dirt-holding capacity of the bags and the expected flow rate.
Many industrial filtration systems use pulse jet-type bag filter compartments that continuously clean the bags with air without taking the chambers offline or interrupting the collection process. This method prevents system failures caused by cleaning and extends the bags’ life because they are not exposed to temperature fluctuations that would weaken them or cause them to stretch.
3. Food & Beverage
Bag filtration systems are ideal for treating large volumes of water, particularly in the food and beverage industry. Brewing, distilling and winemaking processes frequently utilize bag filters to meet stringent regulatory requirements, remove proteins from the fermentation process and reduce contaminants in the finished products.
A bag filter system works on microfiltration principles, with the liquid passing through small permeable pores in a bag. The bags are typically made of a mesh of tiny holes that range in size. The first bag in a series is generally designed with the biggest holes to catch larger particles, while the subsequent bags have smaller holes to allow the smaller molecules through.
A baghouse can be configured for either inside or outside bag dust collection. Inside bag dust collection is where the dirty gases flow into the filter tube’s inside surface, and clean air exits outside the bag media’s surface. This design is often seen in energy applications like power generation. More
