Wet Dust Collector vs. Dry Dust Collector- Which is Better?

Either dry system or wet scrubber has its advantages and disadvantages. both of them are depending on your working process, dust characteristics you produced, and your individual demands. cartridge filter dust collector and wet scrubber are working safety and efficiently for long years in the history in different industries and different applications. However, as the concern of combustible dust issues grows, some companies are considering a wet type dust collector. This wet system scrubs the explosive, flammable, combustible dust, moisture or steam contain dust, spark contain dust, sticky dust, odor contain dust...

Type of dust

Industrial wet dust collector designed systems are often applied where there is a concern about combustible dust. Most occasions are occurs in metal processing factory, foundry workshop, and electrical making company, where has a high likelihood of sparks coming from the polishing and cast processing.

Dry systems also are used in these applications, but there is a risk of deflagration. in addition, the safety device must be installed in the dust collector which have high cost. safety device including the spark tarps, fire-retardant cartridge filters, Explosion-proof valve，Explosion suppression system, Explosion relief valve...that will not fuel a fire.

Wet systems (often called wet scrubbers) can decrease the risk of fire or explosion as well. Air get through the collector, water as filters, mixing with dust and forming the sludge. That is means, if there has an ignition source, there is no explosive atmosphere(dust cloud or dry flammable dust). if maintenance proper, the wet scrubber can use so many years.

Particulate size

The filters in dry systems are more efficient at collecting and removing very fine particulate. especially for the sinter plate filter, the efficiency is about 99.99%(1um), Some metal cutting and grinding process produce large particulate dust. But applications like welding, laser cutting and plasma, and other processes produce very fine particulate metal dust and fumes. A dry collector system can more efficiently capture these particles.

As for the wet scrubber system, it is hard to capture light dust by the water.

Overall, a dry dust collector is more efficient for smaller light particulate, smoke, and welding fumes.

Operation cost

wet scrubber system need high pressure centrifugal fan to drive the equipment, and need water treatment system to disposal the waste water or muddy dust. Regularly, wet scrubber need person to drag out the mud.
dry collectors need compressed air to periodically clean the filters. also, it need person to move the dust bin in some days depending on the working condition.

Both of these two dust collection types require correct equipment maintenance and manual operation.

Disposal

Maintaining a dry type dust collection system sometimes means need to change the filters regularly and should monitoring differential pressure. You must dispose of the filters which contain dust according to the standards for that material. You must consider disposal of the collected dust as well. while, Maintaining a wet scrubber includes making sure the water saturation, without too much material dissolved in it. Dealing with the contaminated waste water, removal of sludge are necessary for a wet dust collector. The sludge may also need to be mixed with other materials or dried to make it safer or more easily disposable. All these systems will require proper maintenance of the pipe work and space areas to make sure dust doesn’t accumulate.

Depending on your type of dust, there may be regulations for how your material needs to be disposed of. With a dry system, bags or cartridge filters usually filter the dust into a container for disposal. With a wet system, the accumulated dust settles out of the water and the sludge must be collected and disposed of. Since the sludge will eventually dry, it is often mixed with an inert substance like sand to make it safer to handle. Many waste management facilities have different regulations for dry and wet materials.

Conclusion

Whether choose dry dust collection system or wet dust collectors, if you are hesitate, please contact ACMAN for technical advice.

in addition, process summary sheet to survey on your working condition is necessary, you can download in the service page.

or contact email: Eric@dustscrubber.com