Dust Monitoring Across the Steel Manufacturing Process
Lower downtime and better visibility across process stages
A large European steel producer
Challenge: repeated closures due to bag-filter failures
Solution: leak detection + continuous trend information
Continuous dust measurement supports filter condition assessment, process performance monitoring, post-ESP measurement and particulate emissions control in steel production.
The challenge
Steel production uses dust collection throughout cokemaking and sintering, furnace operations, conversion and finishing. Filter failures can release dust back into the process or towards emission points, while delayed detection can increase maintenance time, product losses and the risk of unplanned shutdowns.
A large European steel producer was shutting down three to five times per month because of bag-filter failures. Each shutdown lasted approximately two to three hours while maintenance teams identified and replaced the affected filter bags, resulting in around 10–15 hours of downtime per month and substantial annual cost.
The solution
The plant installed Sintrol Snifter monitors on each baghouse compartment to detect broken or deteriorating filter bags. Sintrol S303 trend monitors were added at outlet measurement points, and the monitoring system was connected to DustLog software.
Combining compartment-level leak detection with continuous trend information helped maintenance teams identify the affected baghouse more quickly and use cleaning-cycle behaviour together with dust trends to locate filter problems.
Results
Several hours of plant availability recovered each month.
The monitoring system shortened the time needed to identify filter failures and supported faster maintenance response.
- Earlier detection of deteriorating and broken filter bags
- Faster localisation of the affected baghouse compartment
- Reduced downtime for filter maintenance
- Better visibility into filtration performance
John Korpi
Area Sales Director
Dust Monitoring Solutions
How it works
Sintrol’s probe-based dust monitors use Inductive Electrification technology. When solid particles contact or pass close to an insulated probe, they generate an electrical signal. Signal processing converts this response into a continuous indication of changes in dust levels for filter and process monitoring. Application-specific technologies are used where conditions require post-ESP field neutralisation or extractive measurement of wet and condensing gas.
Sintrol
S101 / S103 Ex Filter Monitor
Reliable S100 Dust Monitors for broken bag detection. Real-time, ATEX Zone 22 approved, easy setup for ducts up to 800 mm.
Sintrol
S203 / S203 Ex Dust Monitor
Sintrol S203 Dust Monitor is used as a continuous trend monitor to see performance of the filtration systems. Perfect to be used after any filtration system or in common line channels leading into the emission points of a plant.
Sintrol
S303 / S303 Ex Dust Monitor
Sintrol S303 is a continuous dust monitor that gives plant operators ability to see the performance of their filtration system over a period.
Sintrol
E-SPY Dust Monitor
Reliable continuous dust monitor for post-ESP applications. Sintrol E-SPY neutralizes electrostatic fields to deliver accurate trend data for optimizing ESP performance.
Sintrol
S314 / S314 Ex Dust Monitor
S314 and S314 Ex provide reliable continuous dust monitoring with split architecture for demanding and hazardous industrial process environments.
Sintrol
S305QAL / S305QAL Ex Dust Monitor
S305QAL is an EN15267-3 QAL1 certified stack monitor for official particulate emissions measurement. Reliable, low-maintenance, and robust, it is approved for use e.g. in waste incineration and combustion plants.
Sintrol
S304QAL-L Filter Leakage Monitor and S304QAL-D Filter Dust Monitor
S304QAL series instruments are designed to accurately detect dust leakages or to monitor filter performance in highly demanding industrial processes found in the industrial environments.
Sintrol
EXO QAL Dust Monitor for Wet Gases
EXO QAL is an extractive optical dust monitor for continuous particulate measurement in wet, condensing and demanding industrial process conditions.
Sintrol
DustCloud
Monitor dust measurements, device status and alerts across multiple locations with DustCloud, Sintrol’s cloud-based industrial dust monitoring service.