Design of baghouses for fines collection in milk powder plants

The design of pulse-jet baghouses for fines collection has been investigated. Firstly, the key design parameters and recommended values for these baghouse are presented, showing a large variation among sources. A procedure for determining the optimal combination of these parameters has been developed that differs from those found in previous literature by including a hitherto ignored area outside the bag bundle. More specifically, a comparison was made among the recommended air to cloth ratios from four published design guidelines, for the case of milk powder collection. Even here, large variation was found. Finally, a comparison between our industrial experience and these guideline values shows that at least for the dairy industry, the guideline of Lőffler et al. [F. Lőffler, H. Dietrich, W. Flatt, Dust Collection with Bag Filters and Envelope Filters, Wiley, 1988] is the best compromise between high capital costs and operational difficulties.