Plasticizers are substances that are added to a product to increase its flexibility and elasticity. Plasticizers can be esters, oils, soft resins or natural substances like for example camphor. plasticizer fumes occur primarily during plastics processing.

Depending on the desired properties of the final product, different types of plasticizers are combined during the production process. However, most plasticizers are not fully integrated into the respective product, which can then lead to evaporation. Especially when exposed to heat, these plasticizers are then released as plasticizer fumes into the environment.

In industrial production plants, plasticizers fumes are usually a waste product during plastic production and processing as well as being a component of oil or emulsion mists. This occurs usually during production steps under high temperatures. Such high temperatures create a very fine mist containing gases, liquid droplets and solid particles. Due to the chemical properties of plasticizers, this mixture is highly combustible and therefore requires careful filtration and separation. In addition to an increased fire hazard, plasticizer fumes are also highly harmful to health. These factors require a high degree of separation to extract plasticizer fumes from process exhaust air.

The high-performance exhaust air filtration systems KMA ULTRAVENT® and KMA AAIRMAXX® by KMA Umwelttechnik are especially adapted to these requirements. Thanks to their modular design, KMA exhaust air filtration systems can be individually adapted to the production site, production machine and exhaust air requirements. Next to its energy-efficient electrostatic precipitator module, KMA also implements gas scrubbers, demisters as well as UV light modules and activated carbon filters to extract plasticizer fumes from exhaust air. Due to adapting the system to the individual requirements, KMA exhaust air filtration systems achieve a separation efficiency of up to 99.8%. To integrate the filtration system into a higher-level fire protection concept of the production plant, KMA Umwelttechnik’s high-performance exhaust air filtration systems can be equipped with appropriate extinguishing systems.