Today’s new concrete mix designs are requiring concrete producers to re-evaluate their current dust collection equipment in order to meet new environmental standards.  Over the past 7 years, the average mix has increased from 500 lbs. to 700 lbs. per cubic yard of cement, increasing the amount of cement and fly ash a producer needs to manage on site.  Concrete batch plants are having secondary cement fill pipes being added to existing cement silo’s and larger cement blowers to transfer cement faster.  The added transfer of cement increases the amount of CFM of air a dust collector needs to efficiently filter and discharge to the outside environment.  Plant bag houses are incorporating more cement cartridge filters vs bag filters to increase the amount of filter area.  Cleaning of cartridges are more efficient by using pulse air jets.  Collected cement dust can be collected and recycled into new concrete.  Dust created by charging concrete mixer trucks can also be recycled into fresh concrete.

New technology can alert a producer of a broken filter as well as shut-off cement being charged into a silo if the collector is not operable or the cement silo is full.  Magnehelic gauges display the real-time efficiency of the cement dust collectors.  DHE Inc. provides a full line of dust collectors and dust collection technology.