In 2008, LANXESS commissioned a cutting-edge regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO) for waste air treatment on stream at its French site in Port Jérôme. The site produces rubber for the tire industry and has an annual capacity of some 140,000 metric tons. Production generates some 130,000 cubic meters of waste air every hour.

This waste air contains, among other substances, rubber particles and solvents in the form of hydrocarbon compounds such as hexane – a mixture that can contribute to the formation of ground ozone and thus summer smog. An innovative incineration process is used to remove virtually all the impurities from the waste air.

How the new high-tech treatment plant works:
The RTO first removes all rubber particles from the waste air. The hydrocarbons are then filtered out, concentrated and incinerated. This process – which has been specially developed for LANXESS – reduces the output of hydrocarbons to around 20 milligrams per cubic meter of waste air. The legal limit in Europe is 110 milligrams per cubic meter. The hydrocarbons can be incinerated using virtually no fossil fuels such as natural gas. This cuts CO2 emissions by approximately 50 percent compared to conventional methods. Another advantage is that operating costs are also much lower than those of conventional RTO plants.