Steam Generating Thermal Oxidizers

What is a Steam Generating Thermal Oxidizer (SGTO) and How Does it Work?

The Steam Generating Thermal Oxidizer (SGTO) has been designed so that a standard two-pass fire tube boiler with a special, proprietary modification can be utilized as an air pollution control system, destroying volatile organic compounds (VOC).

In general, a standard boiler is not sufficient to be utilized as the primary method of destroying VOCs, as problems can arise. This is because the volumetric flow from a process cannot exceed the combustion air requirement of the boiler’s burner.

If the volumetric flow exceeds the boiler’s burner combustion air capacity, the process flow is directed into a Direct Fired Thermal Oxidizer (DFTO), where the VOCs are destroyed at an elevated temperature and the DFTO hot exhaust is then passed through a waste heat boiler where the steam is created.

Basically, with the DFTO waste heat boiler system, the energy given off by the radiation of combusting VOCs is utilized in the thermal oxidizer, and only the connection of the gases is used for creating steam.

The SGTO utilizes a standard two-pass fire tube (scotch marine) boiler. Part of the process emissions are sent through the combustion air blower of the boiler burner. The remainder is passed to the incinerator section at the rear of the boiler.

In this manner, the infrared heat released by combustion is utilized in the boiler furnace and thus the SGTO is more efficient than the common DFTO waste heat boiler system. It also requires less space.

However, the SGTO should only be applied to a process where much steam is required to operate the production process, so that the SGTO is mostly operating at full capacity.