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“The BMW Group is now using electrically powered exhaust gas cleaning technology in some of its polishing plants. Thanks to this new method, the high temperatures required for heat cleaning the exhaust gases from the polishing chambers and drying rooms can now also be generated by electricity. This means that a new process in series production can now eliminate the use of natural gas,” according to a company press release.
BMW Group’s Michele Melchiorre expressed that in energy-intensive processes such as vehicle drying and water heating in painting workshops, gas-free solutions already exist. The company sees electric exhaust air purification as the final step towards powering its painting facilities with regenerative energy in the future. The technology has been tested at BMW Group’s Regensburg plant and at BMW Brilliance Automotive in China. The Dingolfing plant has already integrated the new technology into its production systems.
Electric regenerative thermal oxidation (eRTO) is a process in which gaseous or vapour materials are burnt at temperatures of up to 1000 °C. Unlike previous methods, the technology works purely with electricity.
Before they are released into the atmosphere through chimneys, the exhaust gases from the polishing chambers and drying rooms are cleaned to ensure that the solvents used in the polishing process do not harm the environment.
To do this, the gases are passed through a ceramic bed, which burns off the solvent residues they contain. Here, the air must be heated to very high temperatures in a short time, which was previously only possible with natural gas. However, innovative eRTO technology now allows polishing plants to use only electricity from renewable sources to clean the final gas, without fossil fuels.
“The technology will soon be rolled out to new plants in the BMW Group’s international production network, for example, the new plant in Debrecen will use only eRTO technology to clean the final gases from the lightning process,” the release said.
Source:dehir.hu
