Cleaning Sequences

Two basic sequences are used for bag cleaning: intermittent (or periodic) cleaning and continuous cleaning.

Intermittently cleaned baghouses consist of a number of compartments or sections. One compartment at a time is removed from service and cleaned on a regular rotational basis. The dirty gas stream is diverted from the compartment being cleaned to the other compartments in the baghouse, so it is not necessary to shut down the process. Occasionally, the baghouse is very small and consists of a single compartment. The flow of dirty air into these baghouses is stopped during bag cleaning. These small, single-compartment baghouses are used on batch processes that can be shut down for bag cleaning.

Continuously cleaned baghouses are fully automatic and can constantly remain on-line for filtering. The filtering process is momentarily interrupted by a blast of compressed air that cleans the bag, called pulse-jet cleaning. In continuous cleaning, a row of bags is always being cleaned somewhere in the baghouse. The advantage of continuous cleaning is that it is not necessary to take the baghouse or a compartment out of service for bag cleaning. Small continuously cleaned baghouses only have one compartment and are cleaned by pulse-jet cleaning described in detail later in this lesson. Large continuous cleaning baghouses are built with compartments to help prevent total baghouse shutdown for bag maintenance and failures to the compressed air cleaning system or hopper conveyers. This allows the operator to take one compartment off-line to perform necessary maintenance.