The pharmaceutical sector is facing several challenges nowadays. From an environmental point of view, and as for exhaust gas emissions generated during production, one of the main problems found in the pharma sector is that several different chemical processes often coexist in the production of a single product, while different products are produced in the same plant. Consequently, the analysis of all the possibilities of linked or independent chemical processes must be carried out in detail and in a personalised way, at each production plant.
Specific needs of the pharmaceutical sector
To obtain all the necessary formulations, the pharmaceutical industry carries out complex processes under difficult conditions that need to be identified and controlled: LEL dilution, particle removal, as well as possible explosion relief due to mixing substances used in a multitude of processes to obtain active ingredients.
Pollutants in the pharmaceutical sector
The pharmaceutical industry encounters its biggest emissions problems in the production stages of active ingredients. We find the highest air emissions of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) during the storage and transport of solvents, the purging of nitrogen reactors, distillation and evaporation operations, product drying and equipment cleaning.
Moreover, the pharmaceutical industry has to deal with many more pollutants: acetone, halogenated compounds, ammonia, hydrochloric acid, hydrobromic acid, methanol, methylene chloride, Triton B, benzyl chloride, dichloromethane, toluene, ethanol, thionyl chloride, isopropanol, benzylamine, tetrahydrofuran, bromates and bromides, etc.
Technology solution to eliminate emissions at pharmaceutical production sites: RTO
Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer (RTO) is a piece of equipment designed to eliminate Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from several industrial sectors, and particularly for pharma and chemical production processes. Essentially, the RTO is composed of three towers with ceramic beds, where energy is recovered, and an oxidation chamber in which the temperature is kept constant in order to enable oxidation. The organic compounds it eliminates consist primarily of carbon and hydrogen: consequently, when they react with oxygen, they form carbon dioxide and water. The oxidation chamber incorporates a burner that usually uses natural gas to raise the temperature inside the chamber, although other sources of energy can also be used, such as electricity, transforming it into an electrically-heated RTO.
The advantages of installing a Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer lie in the ability to optimise your energy use while maintaining the same level of efficiency for eliminating VOCs. This is due to the fact that the ceramic towers are able to store a large amount of energy during each sequence, which in turn serves to heat the air or gas that is being treated. In fact, thermal efficiency can reach levels of 90-95 %.
This means that under normal operating conditions, fuel gas is not consumed, since the process is autothermal. An autothermal process is one in which the oxidation chamber maintains its operating temperature without needing to burn energy from an external source (i.e. fuel). This is because the energy released by the VOCs as they oxidise is sufficient to keep the chamber at a high temperature.
One of our many success stories in the pharmaceutical sector
One of the many projects we have successfully carried out in the pharma sector for large multinational pharma labs is this one – for a pharmaceutical plant in Spain, for which we designed, assembled, installed and commissioned a Volatile Organic Compounds emissions treatment plant, composed of an RTO system plus a quench and a gas scrubber to eliminate acid gases. The plant has been working smoothly since 2019, and has transformed the customer’s site into a healthy, safe place for people and the environment.
The pharmaceutical sector is a sector with high environmental risk. Emissions elimination in the pharma sector has become a critical issue in the recent decades. The excess of pollutants in the atmosphere derived from production processes brings consequences and harmful effects for the environment and for people’s health.
Contact us today if you want to learn more, or if you need technical advice on your emissions challenges in the pharma or in any other sector.
