In catalytic thermal oxidizer (CTO) the exhaust gas is initially pre-heated in the special recuperating heat exchanger and then achieves the necessary reaction temperature in the burner chamber working either on natural gas/propane or on electrical energy. Onward the exhaust air flows into the packed bed reactor filled by effective catalyst, which accelerates the reaction and dramatically decreases the temperature of VOC decomposition in water and carbon dioxide. The excess of heat is used for the pre-heating of inlet air flow and the auto-thermal operation can be simply obtained at sufficient concentrations of VOC.

During the reaction the chemical interactions occur between reactants (VOC) and active elements on the catalytic surface while the chemical composition of catalyst remains unchanged. Thus the catalyst keeps its efficiency for many years of operation.

Catalytic thermal oxidizer (CTO)

Schematic illustration of the process in CTO