Preliminary field evaluation of high efficiency steel filters

Technical Report · Wed Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1995

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/95650· OSTI ID:95650

Bergman, W.; Larsen, G.; Lopez, R. ^[1]

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1. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, CA (United States); and others

We have conducted an evaluation of two high efficiency steel filters in the exhaust of an uranium oxide grit blaster at the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge Tennessee. The filters were installed in a specially designed filter housing with a reverse air-pulse cleaning system for automatically cleaning the filters in-place. Previous tests conducted on the same filters and housing at LLNL under controlled conditions using Arizona road dust showed good cleanability with reverse air pulses. Two high efficiency steel filters, containing 64 pleated cartridge elements housed in the standard 2` x 2` x 1` HEPA frame, were evaluated in the filter test housing using a 1,000 cfm slip stream containing a high concentration of depleted uranium oxide dust. One filter had the pleated cartridges manufactured to our specifications by the Pall Corporation and the other by Memtec Corporation. Test results showed both filters had a rapid increase in pressure drop with time, and reverse air pulses could not decrease the pressure drop. We suspected moisture accumulation in the filters was the problem since there were heavy rains during the evaluations, and the pressure drop of the Memtec filter decreased dramatically after passing clean, dry air through the filter and after the filter sat idle for one week. Subsequent laboratory tests on a single filter cartridge confirmed that water accumulation in the filter was responsible for the increase in filter pressure drop and the inability to lower the pressure drop by reverse air pulses. No effort was made to identify the source of the water accumulation and correct the problem because the available funds were exhausted.

• Research Organization: USDOE Assistant Secretary for Environment, Safety, and Health, Washington, DC (United States). Office of Environmental Guidance; Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC (United States). Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research; International Society of Nuclear Air Treatment Technologies, Inc., Batavia, OH (United States); Harvard Univ., Boston, MA (United States). Harvard Air Cleaning Lab.
• OSTI ID: 95650
• Report Number(s): NUREG/CP--0141; CONF-940738--; ON: TI95007828
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

05 NUCLEAR FUELS
22 GENERAL STUDIES OF NUCLEAR REACTORS
AIR FILTERS
DIAGRAMS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
TESTING
Y-12 PLANT