Ministry of Economic Affairs Baden-Württemberg |
::Introduction:: ::Companies:: |
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Prof. Dr.-Ing. Günter Baumbach, Stuttgart University
The most important sources of man-made air pollution are traffic, industrial furnaces and industrial processes as well as small businesses and fireplaces in private households. Special environmental events such as the Winter smog such as occurred from the fifties to the eighties, the new types of forest damage in the eighties and the controversies concerning ozone and dioxins in the last decade resulted in stringent air-pollution regulations - initially in Germany and now all over Europe.
As a result of these regulations and the generally increased public awareness of environmental problems, emission-reduction technologies have been developed in Germany and especially in Baden-Württemberg. These technologies are helping to minimize air pollution at source and clean waste gases effectively.
In the case of motor vehicles, fuel combustion has been improved continuously due to re-design of the combustion chamber as well as electronically controlled fuel injection, carburation and mixture setting in the engine. In addition, great progress has been made not only in catalytic converter technology but also in filtering systems for diesel exhaust particulates. The automotive industry in Baden-Württemberg and its suppliers have made a substantial contribution to this. The great technical challenge in the years to come will be to reduce the level of fuel consumption by vehicles.
In the last twenty years, large industrial furnaces, especially those of power stations, have been equipped with the latest apparatus for desulphurization, nitrogen removal and the elimination of dust particles from flue gas, the result being that there has been a drastic fall in emissions from sources of this kind. German technology - as also supplied by Baden-Württemberg companies - is characterized by its meticulously conceived and reliable functionality, which enables permanent metrological monitoring and, sometimes, even long-distance data transmission to the trade boards responsible for factory supervision. In recent years, special efforts have been made in the area of combustion engineering and flue-gas cleaning for household-waste incineration plants. As a consequence, these facilities are easily able to comply with the very stringent flue-gas limits for polychlorinated dioxins and furans as well as for heavy metals.
In the area of household furnaces, the prescribed annual equipment inspections by chimneysweeps and the improved quality of heating oil have led to a minimization of waste gas emissions. Pellet burners, which enable wood to be used as a fuel in a very environment-friendly manner, are now being developed for home heating systems as well.
Methods of reducing emissions and cleaning flue-gas have to be as diversified as the related industrial processes themselves. Air-polluting substances created by these processes must first be intercepted with suction devices before they can be passed on to a gas cleaning system. Depending on the waste-gas problem (composition and concentration of the waste gases), the cleaning procedure consists of particle removal, thermal and catalytic afterburning of oxidizable gas constituents, absorption or adsorption and bio-filtration or bio-washing. One of the main reasons why German and especially Baden-Württemberg environment-protection technology is regarded with such esteem throughout the world is its great variety of sophisticated waste-gas cleaning systems and individual solutions for problems encountered in the industrial process sector.
Collaboration between industry and institutes of universities and colleges in the state has proven to be highly effective for the development and improvement of emission reduction methods. Many companies, however, cannot afford their own departments for environmental protection and air pollution prevention, the result being that various engineering companies have been established which specialize in advising industry and proposing emission reduction concepts. The measurement institutes whose special waste-gas studies and regular plant monitoring activities are contributing to the development of reliable waste-gas cleaning systems are also worthy of mention.
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