AISTech 2019 — Proceedings of the Iron & Steel Technology Conference

6–9 May 2019, Pittsburgh, Pa., USA

DOI 10.1000.377.014

Improving an EAF Air Pollution Control System Using New Filter Technologies

Timothy Fisher

W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.

101 Lewisville Road, Elkton, MD 21921
Phone: 410-392-3300
Email: tfisher@wlgore.com

Keywords: Air Pollution Control, Baghouse, Fabric Filter, Filter Bag, Drag, Electric Arc Furnace, EAF, Low Drag,
Membrane Filter Bag, ePTFE membrane, Gore, Energy, Fan, Meltshop, Pulse Jet, Reverse Air, Maintenance

INTRODUCTION
A major mid-west USA steel mill was suffering from a combination of excessive bag failures and high flow resistance
through their Pulse Jet baghouse filter. Working together with the OEM and their new bag supplier, this plant used a
combination of collector modifications, creative monitoring strategies, baghouse optimization operations and proactive
failure analyses to reduce gas flow resistance and minimize failures. This paper will explore typical problems in pulse jet
collectors that must be addressed when using high performance expanded PolyTetraFluoroEthylene (ePTFE) membrane
filters, and effective ways to minimize, control, or eliminate those problems to improve performance and total cost of
ownership.

DISCUSSION

Air Pollution Control (APC) Systems in EAF Steel plants

The primary form of pollution control for Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) meltshops in most of the world is a fabric filter, also
known as a baghouse, filtering the gases drawn directly from the shell of the EAF through a Direct Evacuation System
(DES). These gases are frequently combined with the secondary fugitive fume control gases drawn from the meltshop roof
or overhead canopies, as conceptually shown in Figure 1. Such systems may employ gas cooling technologies for the DES
gases, and frequently require multiple fans to achieve the desired total gas volumes necessary1.

Figure 1.

© 2019 by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology. 129

Over the years, technology, engineering, and operational advances have been focused on the EAF, improving its efficiency,
productivity, and production rate2. Faster tap-to-tap times, increased chemical energy input, reductions in scrap quality,
oxygen lancing and foaming slag practices all contribute to more loads placed on the APC system. As a result, the APC
system, which may have been adequate when it was first installed, becomes undersized, or can develop operating problems
from being over-stressed. At the baghouse, these problems can take the form of short filter life, excess emissions, and high
pressure drops. This last problem – high dPs – can result in either a higher energy bill at the fan motors to overcome the
resistance, or a reduction in the total amount of gas flow coming from the meltshop. Even in baghouses that are
conservatively sized and operated well, the overall resistance of the existing system may not allow for EAF operating
advances being contemplated by the steel plant. In such cases, the result is a “dirty” meltshop, where excess fumes escaping
from the furnace shell, and/or fugitive fumes that are not adequately captured by the overhead canopy, are not evacuated from
the meltshop by the APC system. When this happens, the shop is left with the options to keep the fume within the building,
causing production slow-downs and worker health issues, or allow it to escape the shop, where it becomes an environmental
problem. To alleviate these problems, meltshops turn to a variety of ways to increase capacity and improve the performance
of their existing APC systems. This includes fan upgrades, existing baghouse expansions, high performance filtration media,
and new or additional baghouses. Many papers and articles have been written on these various strategies3.

Fabric Filter Technology

As stated earlier, the traditional form of air pollution control for these systems has been a fabric filter. The oldest fabric filter
technologies were Shaker, Shake Deflate, and positive pressure Reverse Air style systems. Today, most plants installing new
or additional systems choose either a Reverse Air baghouse with a stack (either positive pressure or negative pressure), or a
negative pressure compressed air-cleaned system generically referred to in the USA as a reverse jet, or a “Pulse Jet”. While a
relatively “newer” technology to the steel industries, the reverse jet fabric filter collectors were first developed in the late
1950’s, and then became much more ubiquitous in the 1970’s coincident with the Clean Air Act in the USA, similar
environmental regulations in Europe, and the development of industrial felts capable of higher temperature operations (up to
200 °C)4. A majority of US steel mills utilize the reverse air technology – however, there have been a significant number of
pulse-jet units bought and built for this market over the years, and the number of pulse-jet installations is increasing. Pulse-
jet technology could be considered the preferred technology for mills in Europe and the Asia Pacific region, including China.
The general criteria for selecting one technology over another is typically the trade-off between the lower capital costs of a
pulse-jet collector, versus the lower operating and maintenance costs of a reverse air system. As advances in filter and
cleaning system technology advance, the up front costs of a modern reverse air baghouse are coming down to where the
difference between that technology and pulse jets is not as large as it used to be; with that said, there are still advantages to
pulse jet technology that can still allow them to be the best choice in certain applications and circumstances.
Even with a good design and proper maintenance, pulse jet collectors can fall prey to the same problems as the other fabric
filter technologies as mills improve the operation and productivity of their furnaces and ancillary systems. In these situations,
many mills are turning to high performance ePTFE membrane filters such as Gore® LOW DRAG ePTFE Membrane Filter
Media to allow for increased flow rates and lower filter resistances through these systems, as has been demonstrated in
reverse air and shaker systems. However, with improvements in system capacity also come challenges maintaining an
economical bag life and overall emission rates due to holes and other failures. As pulse jets are typically sized at higher air-
to-cloth ratios (ACRs) than reverse air systems, when things go wrong, things get worse much faster.

High Performance ePTFE Membrane Filter Media

As has been presented in previous AIST publications, a new form of this ePTFE membrane technology has been introduced
to the EAF market5. This media has proven to be effective in lowering the resistance to flow (Filter Drag) even in “happy
baghouses” – those that, based on historical operating history and industry norms, would be considered to be operating well.
The key difference in this filter medium compared to previous ePTFE membrane media is its much higher surface efficiency,
even against sub-micron particulate matter. This allows for an enhanced dust cake release that is better than standard
membranes, and much better than non-membrane (conventional) filter materials. It has proven to be equally robust and
durable in use, making it worthy of evaluation for a plant needing additional gas flow or lower resistance (saving energy)
through their APC system.
To date, many Reverse Air systems have been successfully converted to this type of high performance filter media. With
these successful applications comes a reference set of criteria that must be investigated in order to ensure a problem-free
installation and operation, especially when the desired performance is beyond the original design of the system. As more and
more pulse-jet systems convert to this type of media, similar and new operating problems have been discovered and
overcome.

130 © 2019 by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology.

Pulse-Jet Operation
This paper does not intend to provide an extensive discussion on the various theories and designs available for reverse-jet
cleaning systems on the market today. Many good works are available on this subject6. At a high level, a pulse-jet baghouse
system is a compressed air, or high pressure fan, cleaned system, where the filter bags (either tubular, pleated or
envelope/oval) are hung or otherwise supported from a sealing plate called a tubesheet. The particulate (dust or fume) is
collected on the outside of the filter, which is periodically “pulsed” – that is, rapidly inflated in the reverse flow direction – to
remove the accumulated dust cake. The bags are supported by some form of internal structure to prevent them from
collapsing closed during the filtration phase. While these structures can also have many names and shapes, for this article
they will be referred to as “cages”. Please refer to Figure 2.

Figure 2
When the dust cake is pulsed off of the bag, it falls – generally by gravity – into a lower collection section of the device
called a hopper, from where it is removed by the hopper evacuation system
As stated earlier, a primary benefit of a pulse-jet over a reverse air or shaker system is the more compact size of the unit,
which reduces the overall capital cost of the unit to install. Since the reverse pulse of cleaning air is greater than the
incoming air in filter mode, the net result is that the bags can (typically) be cleaned “on-line”; that is, without isolating a
section of the baghouse for cleaning. This allows for a simplification of the system, with less dampers, internal walls,
structures, and moving parts. Due to the relatively “aggressive” nature of the cleaning action, the filter media typically used
in these systems are industrial felts – non-wovens that are inherently thick and resistant to damage from the cleaning blast.
This also makes them more efficient than wovens at higher ACRs, which in turn allows the system to be further reduced in
overall cloth area and size for a given application.

What can go wrong?

While these advantages are often compelling, there are some disadvantages that must be considered, especially in fume
applications like electric arc furnaces used in the steel industry. The ability of a system to operate “on-line” depends on
whether the accumulating dust cake will fall against the upcoming forward airflow once it is pulsed off of the bags’ surface.
If the upcoming flows are too high, and/or if the accumulated dust is too light, the dust will be blown back onto the bags
immediately after the cleaning pulse, giving the operator the impression that the bags are not cleaning, and leading to
unacceptably high pressure drops and flow resistance. This problem, known as “re-entrainment”, is affected by the velocity
of the interstitial flow between the bags, the specific and bulk densities of the particulate, and the cohesive nature (or lack
thereof) of the accumulated dust cake. The bag interstitial velocity, for a given system volume flow rate, is increased by
having the bags spaced close together. Conversely, it can be reduced by increasing bag spacing – however, with large bag
spacing comes increased baghouse size and cost. The cohesiveness of the accumulated dust cake depends on things like the
dust size, chemistry and moisture levels. Agglomerative, “sticky” dusts tend to stick together to form larger particle clusters
that can then fall against the upward airflow. Again, however, the same cohesive forces can also make the dust difficult to
remove from the bag surface. Fumes from a steel EAF application can have either or both of these properties – the fume can
be extremely fine and free-flowing, or very sticky and agglomerative, depending on furnace chemistries and operations, along
with the operating temperatures and gas humidity levels. Typically, EAF fume is considered to be problematic dust for re-

© 2019 by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology. 131

entrainment issues, and so many EAF pulse jet systems are designed to be operated off-line, or at least with the option to run
either way.
It can also be seen from the typical pulse jet baghouse design that the filter bags or elements can be directly subjected to the
incoming dust and gases, as compared to reverse air and shaker systems where the bags hang above the sealing plate. This
means that pulse jet bags can be affected by high gas and dust velocities that can cause erosion of the filter material, i.e.
“sand-blasted”. This erosion, also known as “velocity abrasion” is exacerbated by high dust levels in the hopper, which
prevents turbulent distribution of the incoming gases, and promotes the direction of the incoming gases up into the bags. If
the bags are not held firmly in place (many systems simply have the bag and cage assemblies hanging by gravity from the
tubesheet), they can also swing, bend and otherwise move in the breeze, which causes them to come into contact with each
other and with structures inside the baghouse. This contact creates another form of erosion of the bag material, called
“mechanical abrasion”. Taken together, these abrasive actions and forces can shorten expected bag lives drastically, causing
failures in days rather than years.
Unlike reverse air and shaker systems, where the cleaning is always off-line, and the cleaning strategies are simple and
straightforward, there are many, many pulse jet/reverse jet systems on the market today. Some of the established, “name
brand” systems have taken the inherent short-comings of a pulse jet system into account, and have produced good quality,
successful applications in steel EAF systems. There are just as many, unfortunately, that are simply welded boxes with bags
hanging, with very little regard to correct design parameters such as inlet and interstitial velocities. Even good systems can
become compromised in the competitive bid process, where capital cost reductions can be obtained at the expense of
economical, safe and reliable operation.
Finally, it should also be noted that due to the inherently high ACRs of pulse jets compared to reverse air and shaker systems,
when things go wrong, they get worse much faster. A bag with a hole in a reverse air system can make for a dirty
compartment, but the leaking dust usually does not have a large effect on the other bags in that compartment. In a pulse jet, a
leaking bag sends dust into the clean air plenum, where it can be induced into adjacent bags by the reverse jet cleaning action.
This fume is driven at high velocities into the backside (inside) of the filters, where it becomes lodged more deeply into the
filter cross section. Eventually, this will cause the bag to plug and blind, creating unacceptably high pressure drops, and the
abrasive nature of the dust in the filter cross section can weaken the bag material to the point of early failure. All of this
taken together means that it is important when operating a pulse jet system to prevent failures as much as possible, to catch
them early when they are small, and correct them quickly before they cause damage to additional bags in the collector or
compartment.
At this point in this narrative, the author feels compelled to state that there are many successful pulse jet and reverse jet filter
systems on EAF meltshop applications. Properly designed and operated, these systems can still be maintained with
acceptable simplicity and reliability. Coupled with the lower up-front costs, they represent the majority of the APC systems
on EAF meltshops globally today.

Considerations when upgrading to High Performance Filter Media

The decision to switch filters to a high performance filter medium (Low Drag ePTFE membrane laminates, for example) are
typically made for the following reasons (or combination of reasons):
• The furnace or meltshop require more draft (more gas flow) to maintain cleanliness and environmental compliance
• The plant is in a particularly stringent particulate emissions region, and requires a high efficiency filter medium to
maintain compliance.
• The plant is looking to reduce overall APC system resistance to allow for a reduction in system electrical energy
usage
• The particulate collected is particularly difficult to clean off of conventional filter materials, such as can happen with
the use of evaporative cooling systems causing wet dust cakes.
Additionally, some plants investigate high performance media in an attempt to improve bag life or cleaning due to a poorly
designed baghouse system, or due to poor maintenance practices. These situations rarely work out as the inherent flaws in
the baghouse and/or the operation will also adversely affect the new bags as well, leading to an early, more expensive failure.
High performance filter media, and ePTFE membranes in particular, provide for a lower flow resistance and high particulate
collection efficiencies by utilizing a very efficient filter surface, which can capture even sub-micron particulate at the filter
surface, where it is easily removed with the cleaning pulse. This ease of cleaning results in the filter returning to a near-new
condition after each cleaning cycle. This fundamental aspect of high performance filter media must be considered when
looking at the operation of a pulse jet collector. There is also an expectation that for the investment in these kinds of filters,
they will last at least as long, and preferably longer than, the filters they are replacing. Thus, operation, design and
maintenance details, even small ones, become more important. Let’s look at some specific situations that should be
evaluated as part of a filter media upgrade:

132 © 2019 by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology.

Higher Gas and Dust Loads
A main driving reason may be to increase the total gas flow rate through the baghouse. With this extra flow will come more
dust and fume, per unit time. Gas velocities at the inlet and in the hopper will increase, leading to the potential for inlet
velocity abrasion where none existed before. If the hopper evacuation system is not large enough, or reliable enough to keep
up with the extra dust load, the dust levels in the hoppers may increase, further exacerbating the inlet flow distribution and
abrasion potential. Name brand original equipment manufacturers may have done flow distribution studies with their
systems, and can have baffling plates and devices to help distribute those gas flows; however, these static systems are
typically designed assuming an empty hopper, and can be overwhelmed if the flow increases are too high, or if the dust
characteristics change causing the distribution systems to plug up.
This leads to another aspect of high performance filters. They are naturally much more efficient in the low and sub-micron
particle size range, thus the dust captured will have a larger portion of very fine particles in its size profile. This increase in
fine dust and fume capture increases the available surface area of the dust, which in turn causes it to typically be more
agglomerative and absorbent. Thus, it is not unusual to see the flow characteristics of the captured dust to change with the
use of these filters, and with that change new challenges keeping baffles clear and hoppers emptying.

Better Cleaning results in a “rush” of air just after the bags are cleaned
The high efficiency surfaces of ePTFE membrane filter bags release more of the dust cake than non-membrane filters. This
means that immediately after the cleaning cycle, the just-cleaned filter is very permeable, and the gas flows prefer to take the
path of least resistance through that filter. There will be a rush of dust-laden gas to those just-cleaned filters, until a sufficient
new dust cake forms and the permeability of the filter plus dust cake balances. In an on-line pulse jet system, where one row,
or just a few rows, clean at a time, the rush of gas flow to those bags is small relative to the whole compartment. In an off-
line cleaned system, however, all of the bags are cleaned, and then the compartment is brought back on line. In this scenario,
there is a rush of gas flow coming into that compartment for the first several seconds to minutes, well above the design limits
of the compartment. This can cause momentary velocity abrasion, and more importantly can cause the bags hanging in the
compartment to move and swing, banging into each other and allowing mechanical abrasion to occur.
This would suggest that on-line cleaning is a better strategy for use with high performance filters, but it is to be remembered
that EAF fume can be fine and light enough to re-entrain in an on-line scenario. There are high performance systems, and
operating strategies that can allow for on-line cleaning, some of which will be discussed later in this article. In other
instances, baghouses have been designed with enough space between the bags to minimize the interstitial bag flow, allowing
for a successful on-line operation. Absent those strategies or designs, the operator is advised to have a slow acting damper
system, or some other strategy for bringing the just-cleaned compartment back on-line after cleaning.

Leaks in ePTFE membrane bags can more quickly lead to problems and failures in adjacent bags
The ePTFE membrane surface of these bags is efficient in both directions – that is, any dust that has leaked onto the clean
side of the collector and is pulsed at high velocities back into the clean side of other bags will be pushed through the
supporting material and lodge up against the membrane from the backside, where it becomes stuck. Eventually, enough
backside contamination will reduce the permeability of the bag and increase the flow resistance, leading to high pressure
drops. To overcome the perceived lack of cleaning in these situations, operators can mistakenly think they need to clean the
bags harder or faster; in either or both cases hastening the failure of the bag from over-pulsing wear. Dust filling the cross
section of the filter can also act as an internal abrasive, causing the support material to weaken with each pulse movement,
until it has lost enough of its original strength to fail.

Longer bag life expectancies means more required attention to details

Absent specific failure conditions, filter bags, whether they be high performance or conventional, will eventually “wear out”.
Like a paper clip being bent back and forth, a filter will eventually fail from flex fatigue with each flex of the fabric due to
the cleaning action on the bag. The harder the flex, the less number of flexes is necessary to lead to the failure. Thus it is
important once high performance filters are installed, to re-configure the cleaning system to provide for the optimum
combination of effective bag cleaning and maximum bag flex life. Due to the higher ACRs and unit dust loads typical of a
pulse jet baghouse, bags tend to be cleaned more frequently, making cleaning system optimization an important part of the
start-up of a new system.
Since ePTFE membrane filters clean more easily, the cleaning pressure utilized by the cleaning system can frequently be
reduced to reduce the stress on the bags. While cleaning frequency is more a function of the dust load, and therefore
typically cannot be changed, it can be altered by changing things like the cleaning pulse on-time (the time that the
compressed air is firing into the bag), and the speed and actuation of compartment dampers as mentioned earlier. The

© 2019 by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology. 133

cleaning frequency and strategy should be set to just keep up with the dust load, and to even that dust load into the hopper
evacuation system – no more frequently than necessary so as to maximize bag life.
With all of these concerns it would seem that high performance filters in pulse jet applications might not be worth the effort.
In reality, high performance filter bags have been successfully used in pulse jet systems in a wide variety of applications
since 1974, including many steel plant EAF systems. They are the preferred filter for use in kiln applications in the cement
industry, which has learned how to design, maintain and operate these filters to achieve 5 to 7 year bag lives. Similar bag
lives, along with the low flow resistance and low emission typical of this filter medium can be achieved in EAF applications
as well. The following is a practical example of one mill’s procedures and operations that have resulted in excellent
performance to date.

Case History
A major steel mill in the Midwest of the USA operates a nominal 100 ton twin-shell EAF meltshop serviced by two
baghouses systems. The larger of the two is a reverse air baghouse that today is operating only on the canopy fumes (fugitive
meltshop control), while the smaller baghouse is a pulse-jet collector containing 4100 ePTFE membrane/fiberglass fabric
filter bags servicing the combined DES and canopy flows. In an effort to improve the furnace draft and general meltshop
conditions, as well as the need to handle the higher temperatures being seen, high temperature ePTFE membrane bags were
installed in the pulse jet unit, which was seeing the lion’s share of the dust load and furnace gases. The plant’s initial
experience with these membrane bags was not good. Bag lives were short, due to holes in the bags and bottom stitching
coming loose from high inlet velocity abrasion and frequent pulsing.
It was found early on that while the pulse-jet baghouse had good inlet baffling and incoming flow distribution, the
components of that system, especially an open metal screen that is used as a flow diffuser, would plug with the furnace dust
very quickly. Once this screen was clogged, the incoming gas flows were re-directed and accelerated towards the bags in the
first several rows, causing velocity abrasion, and bag-to-bag contact that again led to mechanical abrasion. The combination
of early, frequent bag failures and plugged inlet baffles led the plant personnel to investigate a “do over”, starting with new
ePTFE membrane bags with a high durability design, and then incorporating various operating and maintenance strategies
that they had learned the hard way.
Some of the strategies and ideas they employed are presented here:
1. On-Line Cleaning. On-line cleaning improved the flow distribution. As stated earlier, pulse-jet systems have the
ability to clean the bags even while the system is filtering. If the dust is fine and light, and/or if the upward flow
between the bags is too high, then the just-cleaned dust can re-entrain back onto the bags, causing high pressure
drops. The flow distribution of this baghouse, when clean and functional, allowed some of the incoming flow to
disperse between the bags at bag level, reducing the overall upward velocity. This, coupled with good bag spacing,
allowed the steel plant to switch to an on-line cleaning strategy. This proved to be beneficial to bag life. When a
high performance membrane bag cleans, it cleans very well. In an off-line situation, an entire compartment of bags
is cleaned, and then that compartment is brought back on-line all at once. Since that compartment is much cleaner
than the rest, the dust laden gases want to rush into that compartment in the beginning, creating a situation where the
inlet velocities are temporarily too high, which in turn causes the bags to abrade and swing around, bumping into
each other. By cleaning on-line, this rush of air into a compartment is avoided. However, it was noted that over the
course of several days, the pressure drop across the bags would creep up. It was found that there was just enough
upward airflow to cause the finest component of the dust to re-entrain, while the heavier parts of the dust dropped on
cleaning. This was solved by cleaning the bags off-line with the fans off during the scheduled short weekly
downturn, allowing the bags to come back to their lowest starting pressure drop.
2. Maintaining a clear and functional baffle system. A critical component of the inlet baffle distribution system
was an expanded metal screen. It would completely clog with fume within a day or two, despite several attempts at
a re-design. The crew eventually came up with a simple way to “pound” the screen and dislodge most of the
plugging fume. A sealed rod was welded to each compartment’s screen, which extended above the compartment
inlet. Once per day, a member of the crew will “hammer” this rod with a heavy cylinder that fits over the rod,
cleaning the screen. This action keeps the screen clear, and allows the inlet baffle system to operate the way it was
designed “on paper”.
3. Keeping the hoppers empty. The hoppers at this steel mill are kept continuously clean. The hopper section of a
pulse jet baghouse is not meant to be used for fume storage – rather, it allows for the incoming gases to turbulently
distribute more evenly up into the bags. If the hoppers start to fill with dust, either by operational strategy, or by a
malfunction of the hopper evacuation system, the incoming gases will not distribute properly, leading to violent bag
movement and high velocity abrasion, along with an unequal distribution of fume onto the bags in that compartment.
4. Lower and monitor compartment header/manifold pressures. Early in the life of the new high performance
ePTFe membrane filters, the pulsing pressures for each compartment were monitored and adjusted to be as low as

134 © 2019 by the Association for Iron & Steel Technology.

 they could be while still adequately cleaning the bags. This is a normal part of start-up system optimization, and
meant to maximize performance and bag life. In this monitoring, it was noted that the compartment header tank
pressure did not equally discharge with each pulse. Investigation revealed several damaged solenoid diaphragms
and malfunctioning pulse valves, which were then fixed. It was discovered that monitoring this header pressure with
each pulse was a very effective way of seeing pulse diaphragm operation, and to detect those that were going bad
before they failed. Today, the header pressure is monitored along with the other baghouse data in the control room
PLC system, so that the maintenance crew can see at a glance which pulse valves are working properly and which
are failing, allowing them to proactively replace failing diaphragms and valves, keeping the system 100%
functional. This means that all bags clean every time, with gas and dust loads properly distributed.
5. Utilize an accurate broken bag detection system. In the same way that the cleaning pressures are monitored, the
steel mill utilizes a triboelectric broken bag detector system in each compartment. The system was originally
installed with a short detector located in the outlet duct – the baghouse maintenance crew extended that detector to
cover the entire outlet duct to improve its sensitivity and accuracy. This system is also indexed to the bag cleaning
system, in such a way as to detect any “spike” in emissions that occur immediately after a row pulses. Since the
ePTFE membrane bags utilized here are very high efficiency, the normal readings of this system are very low – thus
even a small spike in emissions can be seen, and acted upon. In this way, NSNE can detect bags that are beginning
to fail, before that failure becomes a large leak. This in turn keeps the overall baghouse emissions well below their
regulatory limits, and prevents operation of a leaking bag from contaminating the other bags in its vicinity, This is
especially important for ePTFE membrane/fiberglass bags, which are very susceptible to backside contamination
shortening bag life.
6. Install “hold-downs” over the bags near the inlets. Even with good diligence at keeping the baffle screens clear,
and using an on-line cleaning strategy to minimize compartment flow imbalance, the crew still noted the occasional
bag failure in the first two rows of bags closest to the compartment inlet. Many of these failures were from bag-to-
bag contact, not from velocity abrasion. It was decided to install a stiff bar across the tops of the first two rows of
bags that just caught the edges of the cage tops, but did not interfere with the bag opening. Since the cages in this
system just sit on the tubesheet and hang by gravity, they are free to swing around if high velocity currents push the
bags. By holding down the tops of the bags, this reduces the overall freedom of movement of the bags in these
situations.
7. Keep an accurate failed bag replacement map, and blank off repeat “offenders”. Even with the hold-downs
installed, it was noted that some bags still failed in the same tubesheet locations, which in this baghouse tended to be
in the corners of some of the compartments. Even with the tops of the bags held, there was still enough turbulence
in these corners to cause the cages to bend, allowing for bag-to-wall and bag-to-bag contact and abrasion – in some
cases even the junction of the two-piece cages would break. Rather than “fight’ these failures, it was found to be
better to just blank off those holes with a gasketed metal plate. The negligible reduction in cloth area had little
effect on the overall system pressure drop, while eliminating an on-going problem that could damage a larger
number of bags (not to mention the increased work load on the maintenance crew).
8. Maintain a close supporting relationship with your bag and baghouse suppliers. This maintenance crew
utilizes a simple, secure video collaboration service with Gore which allows them, in real time, to show via a direct
video link using their smart phones, any bags that may have failed due to questionable operation or service. In this
way, their supplier can provide immediate feedback and coaching as to what caused the particular failure, whether it
was a bag house problem or a bag problem, and what remedies can be immediately agreed to. This takes the place
of delays caused by sending used or failed bags to a lab for analysis and follow-up “reports”. Video sessions can be
saved as an electronic record for all parties, and can be used as training videos for new crew members. This service
also allows their supplier to keep a closer watch on the system operation, and to suggest preventative measures that
can keep things running smoothly and maximize bag life. In some cases, this has resulted in novel approaches
specific to the needs of the this baghouse that came out of a collaborative session around a single failed bag.
9. Maintain a clean baghouse. This last detail could seem to be a joke (baghouses are by nature very dirty places),
but in reality a clean baghouse allows maintenance crews to see things failing early (such as hopper evacuations
systems, leaking bags, leaking door seals, etc.), which turn allows them to fix them before they cause damage to the
filters or baghouse operation. This particular plant is meticulous in their baghouse hygiene –the floors underneath
the baghouse are painted and polished. ANY dust that may accumulate on top of the tubesheet – from a leaking or
broken bag, or that fell off of a bag that was pulled out for testing –is vacuumed completely before the lid is replaced
and the compartment brought back on-line. Any dust that might accumulate outside of the baghouse, especially on
top of the compartment lids, is also vacuumed. This creates an easier, healthier work environment, where
maintenance activities are much more likely to get done than avoided.

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 CONCLUSIONS
High efficiency, high performance ePTFE membrane filtration media has become a well-accepted option for improving EAF
APC system operations and economics. With the introduction of new Low Drag membrane laminates, this option has
become even more economical, offering the lowest cost of ownership. As more and more systems utilizing Pulse Jet
baghouse technology explore these laminates, it is important for APC system operators to understand the different operating
characteristics of this technology, the potential problems that can arise, and the mitigating operations and procedures that can
be used to obtain the maximum performance and life from these filters. Experienced users and suppliers are developing new
procedures and best practices that allow these filters to reach their maximum potential in both Reverse Air and reverse jet
(pulse jet) cleaned baghouse systems. Such procedures and practices ensure that the investments made with this upgraded
technology give the steel plant its maximum return on that investment, and the realization of the lowest total cost of
ownership.

REFERENCES
1. Ed. – Wayne T. Davis, Air Pollution Engineering Manual, 2nd ed. Air and Waste Management Assoc., 2000, pp 584-
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