Preliminary field evaluation of high efficiency steel filters

The authors have conducted an evaluation of two high efficiency steel filters in the exhaust of an uranium oxide grit blaster at the Y-12 Plant in Oak Ridge Tennessee. The filters were installed in a specially designed filter housing with a reverse air-pulse cleaning system for automatically cleaning the filters in-place. Previous tests conducted on the same filters and housing at LLNL under controlled conditions using Arizona road dust showed good cleanability with reverse air pulses. Two high efficiency steel filters, containing 64 pleated cartridge elements housed in the standard 2' x 2' x l' HEPA frame, were evaluated in the filter test housing using a 1,000 cfm slip stream containing a high concentration of depleted uranium oxide dust. One filter had the pleated cartridges manufactured to the authors specifications by the Pall Corporation and the other by Memtec Corporation. Test results showed both filters had a rapid increase in pressure drop with time, and reverse air pulses could not decrease the pressure drop. The authors suspected moisture accumulation in the filters was the problem since there were heavy rains during the evaluations, and the pressure drop of the Memtec filter decreased dramatically after passing clean, dry air through the filter and after the filter sat idle for one week. Subsequent laboratory tests on a single filter cartridge confirmed that water accumulation in the filter was responsible for the increase in filter pressure drop and the inability to lower the pressure drop by reverse air pulses. No effort was made to identify the source of the water accumulation and correct the problem because the available funds were exhausted