New Practice in Flue Gas Resource Utilization: How Combustible Pollutants Become Process Energy
2026/11/04 24
Ningbo Taiji Environmental Protection Equipment Co., Ltd. has recently entered into cooperation with a Jiangxi environmental technology company. Targeting carbon monoxide (CO) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the client's environmental furnace flue gas, the project adopts Taiji's independently developed DS Combustion Purification Heat Recovery System for deep treatment, and is equipped with a waste heat boiler to recover the heat released during oxidation, generating steam that is supplied back to other production processes at the client's facility.
Upon commissioning, the project is expected to save approximately 2.7 million Nm³ of natural gas annually and produce 36,000 tonnes of steam per year, achieving the dual benefits of compliant flue gas treatment and energy recovery.
01 A Single Collaboration: Energy Savings and Pollution Control Achieved Simultaneously
The client is an environmental enterprise specializing in the recycling and smelting of waste copper and the comprehensive recovery of multiple metals. During regenerative copper smelting, the flue gas from environmental furnaces contains combustible pollutants such as CO and VOCs that must be effectively treated before emission. Conventional treatment approaches only address clean emission, and the treatment process itself often consumes additional fuel. This collaboration, however, addresses a different question: can the heat generated during treatment be recovered?
Under the cooperation plan, Taiji Environmental Protection has configured the DS Combustion Purification Heat Recovery System to perform high-temperature oxidative deep treatment of CO and VOCs in the environmental furnace flue gas. The heat released by the oxidation reaction is first recovered through regenerative means to sustain the system's own operation; any surplus heat is then converted into steam via a paired waste heat boiler, which is supplied to the client's other production processes. In this way, a single system accomplishes two objectives: CO and VOCs in the flue gas are deeply removed, while the heat generated during the process produces steam that is reused in production.
02 Process Breakdown: How the DS Combustion Purification System Turns Pollutants into Steam
The DS Combustion Purification Heat Recovery System is an industrial furnace flue gas multi-pollutant synergistic control device independently developed by Ningbo Taiji Environmental Protection Equipment Co., Ltd. since 2018, with nearly 20 units deployed in the metallurgical industry. Its core principle is regenerative high-temperature oxidation combined with cascaded heat recovery. Environmental facilities are thereby transformed from pure cost centers into energy assets that simultaneously deliver emission reduction and energy savings.
03 From Treatment Cost to Energy Asset: The Changing Role of Environmental Facilities
Against the backdrop of advancing Dual Carbon goals and increasingly stringent environmental standards, industrial flue gas treatment is undergoing a fundamental shift: from treating for compliance to recovering resources and energy during treatment.
This collaboration between Taiji Environmental Protection and the Jiangxi client offers a replicable model — the combustible components in flue gas from waste copper smelting are converted into steam through high-temperature oxidation, and the steam is returned to production, completing an energy loop within the plant. It also represents another application of this technology in the field of non-ferrous metal recycling, specifically for environmental furnace flue gas treatment and waste heat recovery.