The world market for scrubbers, absorbers, adsorbers, and biofilters will exceed $5 billion in 2005. This represents a gain of $500 million over the projected 2003 revenues of $4.5 billion. This forecast represents the latest changes in the McIlvaine online report, Scrubber/Adsorber/Biofilter: World Markets.
Over 12 percent of the total market is found in the Metals segment. This includes iron and steel mills and smelters. A number of new smelters are being built in less developed countries. Also, scrubber upgrades are taking place in countries which previously were not overly concerned with pollution control. Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Smelter (KrAZ) in Russia's remote Eastern Siberia is part of Russian Aluminum and owns four of the world's biggest aluminum smelters. RusAl has ambitious plans to overtake the U.S.'s Alcoa to become the world's top primary aluminum producer by 2012.
This smelter has retrofitted scrubbers on one potline and plans to install scrubbers on the other 23 potlines. The new systems will capture 99.8 percent of the hydrogen fluoride and return it to the process.
Waste incinerators represent another big market for scrubbers and absorbers. Dry scrubbing has become more popular than wet scrubbing for incinerator applications. Many new waste-to-energy plants are in the planning stages in Asia. Europe continues to tighten regulations on landfills. This, in turn, is driving the market toward combustion. The U.S. has benefited from space available for landfill. But even here the tide is turning. Honolulu, Hawaii is planning to gasify and scrub its garbage which will then be converted into gas to drive turbines. The market for scrubbers and absorbers for waste incineration will increase to over $1 billion/yr. by 2007.
Odor control for municipal wastewater plants represents the single largest market. This year revenues in this segment will be in excess of $900 million. China is the largest market for odor control scrubbers for municipalities. Scrubbers are being purchased from local suppliers, but also from U.S. and other foreign companies. Biofilters are finding increasing use in wastewater plants. They have proven efficient on odor removal, and they do not require the purchase of chemicals. The food industry has become the second largest market for biofilters behind municipal wastewater odor control
The electronics industry requires scrubbers for a variety of applications. Semiconductor plants can be equipped with hundreds of point of use scrubbers which capture toxic gases emitted in the chip making processes. Pulp and Paper plants utilize scrubbers for odor control and capture of acid gases. Scrubbers are also used for particulate removal from lime kilns and boilers.
Adsorption with carbon or zeolites represents 20 percent of the total market. The surface coating industry is the largest purchaser of adsorbers. Carbon adsorbers are also used in the chemical, wastewater, and many other industries.
While most scrubber applications are for gas removal, over 15 percent of the market is comprised of particulate removal applications. Scrubbers are an inexpensive way to capture dust at transfer points in material conveying. The efficiency of low energy scrubbers is sufficient for mechanically generated dust. High energy or venturi scrubbers can be used to capture furnace fumes and other fine particulate. However, in the U.S. and Western Europe, fabric filters have increasingly been utilized for furnace fumes due to their higher efficiency. Nevertheless, Asia and developing countries elsewhere find that scrubbers represent a less expensive solution to their emission problems. As a result, the scrubber market is growing fastest in the developing countries.
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Bob McIlvaine
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