Smoke is an aerosol that is produced during a combustion process. Besides minuscule solid particles, such as ash or mineral dust, smoke also contains gases and traces of liquids, like natural oils.
In food processing, smoke is used to dissolve flavor-enhancing or flavor-bearing minerals, oils or fats from a fuel, e.g. wood, to transfer them into food, e.g. meat products, for preservation. Although using smoke for food preservation has been a long-standing practice, it can also have harmful effects on people and the environment. Next to the useful components of smoke, the combustion process produces also harmful gases like carbon monoxide. There is a high risk of deflagration or fire if the gases bound in the smoke come into contact with oxygen. Therefore, any smoke insides a closed room must be extracted and purified in a controlled manner.
Exhaust air purification is subject to strict legal requirements. Many companies use energy-intensive thermal oxidation systems, e.g. thermal or catalytic systems, to separate smoke from the production exhaust air. During the process of thermal oxidation, the enclosed exhaust air is heated to temperatures between 600 and 800°C at which point the impurities combust. This form of exhaust air purification is very cost-intensive due to the high energy input, e.g. electricity or fossil fuels, and has negative effects on the life cycle assessment of the company. The high-performance exhaust air filtration systems by KMA Umwelttechnik offer a more energy-efficient and thus environmentally friendly alternative. Thanks to the modular design, KMA filtration systems can be adapted to the individual exhaust air requirements. The core is the innovative electrostatic precipitator module with a separation efficiency of up to 99.8% at a very low energy consumption – a KMA electrostatic precipitator module consumes only 100 W to purify an exhaust air volume of 5,000 m3/h. On request, further modules for odor separation, heat recovery or filter cleaning can be added to the precipitator module.