Targeting and design for minimum treatment flowrate for vent streams

The reduction of emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can be brought about by elimination or reduction at source, recovery for reuse, recovery for treatment and disposal, or treatment and disposal of the VOC laden gas stream. Once VOCs have been minimized at source, then recovery and treatment must be considered. This paper addresses the minimization of recovery and treatment flowrates for sites with multiple sources of VOCs, for which it is possible to have combined recovery and treatment processes. The solutions will depend on the legislative framework, for which control might be required on the basis of concentration or mass load. Both cases are considered. Flammability issues have also been considered. Targeting and design methods are presented that allow segregation of streams so that flowrate and cost of recovery and treatment can be minimized.