Novel incinerator reduces hydrocarbon emissions

10th May 2006, Ehovoc Oy
Novel compact incinerator helps meet tougher EU regulations on hydrocarbon emissions

Ehovoc Oy has launched a novel incinerator incorporating revolutionary
catalytic technology that can help companies meet the new EU regulation
standards for volatile organic chemicals, VOCs, that include hydrocarbons.

Called the Little Giant, the company's new design is not only smaller than
competing VOC removal systems, but uses less energy, has low life cycle
costs, a long operational life and low maintenance costs. For the first
time, incinerators incorporating catalytic systems are able to compete
against traditional thermal designs when all factors are taken into account.

The main applications for the Little Giant are in the painting, printing,
pharmaceutical and chemical industries. VOCs are emitted by a wide array of industrial and commercial products including paints and lacquers, paint
strippers, cleaning supplies, pesticides, building materials and
furnishings, cosmetics, graphics and craft materials including glues and
adhesives, permanent markers, and photographic solutions.

Performance guaranteed

"The Little Giant is probably the first VOC catalytic incinerator to be
given a 10 year warranty for the catalyst and associated heat exchanger,"
says Mr Reijo Lylykangas, Export Director at Ehovoc Oy. "This reflects our
confidence in our technology and the long-term performance of the
incinerator. This is based on the company's experience of the operation of
30 reference incinerators."

With the last, and most stringent phase of the EU's VOC directive coming
into effect in October 2007, many companies using organic solvents are faced with meeting these tough new regulations. The new incinerator helps
companies meet the new emission standards with their current production processes.

Low operational costs

The Ehovoc incinerator offers extremely low operational costs. Altogether
the energy requirements, maintenance, compressed air supply etc. add up to
only 1 euro per hour for an incinerator with a capacity of 4000 m3/h with
VOC content of only 0.5 g/m3, for example.

The standard version of the Little Giant has been designed to fit into a
freight container which makes it easy to transport to customers' premises.
Installation is easy and quick requiring only connections to the gas pipe
line, compressed air and electricity operation.

In practice, the incinerator is fully automatic in operation and adjusts
according to the solvent concentration. The overall control can be by
computer or alternatively managed by a GSM-phone.

Ground-breaking technology

The Little Giant concept improves upon the company's ground-breaking VOC incinerator technology. It integrates a new catalytic system with an
enhanced heat exchanger system into a space-saving design. The catalytic
converter reduces the incineration temperature to 300-350°C compared to
conventional incineration temperatures of between 760°C and 850°C.

The catalytic converter is based on a precious metal catalyst with a high
geometric and specific surface area which is very tolerant to so called
catalyst poisons such as phosphor, sulphur, calcium and zinc.

Raising efficiency

Ehovoc has also improved the heat transfer characteristics of the heat
exchanger through creating a design with a very large surface area, using
thin strips of corrugated steel. This raises the efficiency of the heat
transfer from the air stream to the steel to 96%.

The new design supports a dramatic increase in the capacity of the
incinerator coupled with small size. When compared to competing
incinerators, the Little Giant is around one quarter the size.

Ehovoc Oy was set up in 1998 and its main business activities are in
incinerators based on its innovative catalytic technology for handling VOCs. It is certified both to ISO 9001 and ISO 140001 quality and environmental
standards. Based at Oulu in Northern Finland the company is a privately
owned company with part ownership by the Finnish venture company,
Teknoventure.

Picture captions (pictures available at http://press.news-lab.com/ehovoc):
1. The Little Giant is a novel incinerator incorporating catalytic
technology to reduce emission of volatile organic chemicals, VOCs.
2. Thanks to the innovative design incorporating catalytic converters from
Ehovoc Oy, a VOC incinerator with a capacity of 18,000 nm3/h can fit into a
20 ft container.
3. The structure for the catalytic converter used in the Little Giant
increases contact between gas molecules and the catalytically active surface
by four times. The high surface area is covered with a ceramic coating which
is very tolerant to so called catalyst poisons resulting in a long active
life.

For more information please contact:
Ehovoc Oy
Mr Reijo Lylykangas, Export Director
Jussinkuja 4
41330 Vihtavuori
FINLAND
Tel: +358 (0)14 3771 356
Fax: +358 (0)14 3771 356
Mobile: +358 (0)50 3873 762
E-mail: reijo.lylykangas@vocci.fi
www.ehovoc.fi