Cleaning Air Like a Vacuum Cleaner: Let's Bag It
Students examine a vacuum cleaner model of a baghouseCopyright 2010 Albin Olsson, Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vacuum_cleaner_bag_in_vacuum_cleaner.jpg
Students observe and discuss a vacuum cleaner model of a baghouse to better understand how this pollutant recovery method functions in cleaning industrial air pollution.
Environmental and mechanical engineers are continually inventing new techniques to remove the air pollutants in industrial emissions. Baghouses capture more than 99% of the particulate air pollutants from steel mills, foundries and other industrial furnaces. They work very much like a giant vacuum cleaner: Heavy dirt particles fall out and are removed, and smaller particulates are trapped in filters (bags) made of cloth or paper. Engineers design home vacuum cleaners, too.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Describe and explain how a baghouse works to control air pollution.
- Describe how engineers create technology to help industry clean up their air pollution.