Associate Scientist Dean Tompkins is testing methods for storing and destroying volatile organic compounds with the help of students Bern Jordan (left) and Senyo Adzaku (front). (Photo: Greg Anderson) (13K JPG)

It's not enough for third generation printer Philip Gelatt to follow air-quality emissions standards. He wants to lead them. In fact, Northern Engraving Company signed an agreement with the Wisconsin DNR to voluntarily surpass clean-air standards. Ultimately, Gelatt hopes he won't have to worry about regulations at all.

"Our goal is to be an unregulated company," he says. "If I don't emit anything, I won't fall under any regulatory issues."

It's an ambitious goal. With headquarters in Sparta, Northern Engraving Company (NEC) has eleven manufacturing facilities in the upper Midwest. The company manufactures nameplates and other industrial decoratives on a variety of substrates including metals and plastics. Dell Computer, Sub-Zero, Craftsman and many others rely on NEC.

Printers fall under environmental regulations because the solvents used to wash printing presses release volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the air. Currently, NEC achieves a higher environmental standard than required by pulling fumes from the press into an exhaust duct and burning them in an incinerator. But the process consumes vast quantities of natural gas, not only in destroying VOCs, but also in releasing heated air from the plant into the cold Wisconsin winters.

With a grant from Wisconsin's Focus on Energy program, Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Marc Anderson and Chemical Engineering Associate Professor Thatcher Root are building a photocatalytic combustion system that will replace NEC's gas-fired incinerator with banks of ultraviolet lights. The technology, developed by Anderson, employs a film of titanium dioxide nanoparticles that, when illuminated with ultraviolet light, oxidize organic compounds degrading them to CO2 and water.

"The physical chemistry works. It's now a matter of, how do you make an engineering practice out of it? That gets you into reactor design engineering," says Anderson.

Designing a scaled up photocatalytic reactor for the plant presents some interesting challenges. The flow of VOCs is uneven. Concentrations are generally low until the presses are washed down. Root is investigating load leveling designs that could capture the surge and then release it to the catalyst slowly, treating an average flow of solvents rather than a spike.

"We want to cut this into the air handler," says Root. "If we completely convert all the hydrocarbon fumes to carbon dioxide and water, then the air becomes breathable and can be vented back inside the plant instead of venting it outside. So first it saves them on the natural gas bill because they don't need the incinerator running all the time, and second it saves them air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter because they won't be blowing huge amounts of air out of the plant.

Anderson and Root are also working on a photocatalytic reactor to treat hydrocarbons in liquid waste streams. The systems for treating low level VOC concentrations in gas and liquid waste could add up to huge energy savings for businesses in Wisconsin and beyond.

For Philip Gelatt and his employees, the system is a step toward achieving a goal. "We have a strong environmental policy statement," says Gelatt. "Our ultimate goal is to do no harm to the environment and yet remain a thriving and vital employer in the upper Midwest of the United States. The goal is to leave a legacy. We live in the town that we work in and we want to leave the next generation a legacy that we are proud of."

Contact: Marc Anderson
608/262-2674