In recent years some companies have sold what are essentially snow making machines for dust control.

The machines are often referred to as Fog Cannons when in reality they do not produce water droplets
small enough to be called fog. Dry fog is defined as droplets between 1-10 microns. The next droplet size
category is Fine Mist, droplets between 11 and 100 microns. These machines typically put out a
minimum droplet size of 90 microns up to 300 microns which is defined as Fine DRIZZLE, just short of
RAIN in size! This distinction is important because if the droplet size is larger than the airborne dust
particle then the particle can slip stream around the droplet resulting in no contact and therefore no
agglomeration of the dust particles to make them fall out.

Water consumption for Cannons is measured in Gallons per MINUTE ranging from 12 to 30 GPM! With
Dry Fog TM we measure our nozzles in gallons per HOUR, ranging from 3 to 13 GPH. What this means is
you have high water consumption, possible wetting of material issues, BTU loss for fuels, unstable loads
for ship holds as example copper concentrate being too wet, slip and fall hazards ...

We can use so little water because we create a true dry fog that is the same size as the dust particle. We
estimate that we can cover the surface area of ½ a football field with fog using only 1 gallon of water!

Compared to Water Spray

Water Sprays or Garden Hose Technology is the oldest form of "dust control". These systems are
designed to wet the material before dust is generated. However, there are several issues that
makes these systems ineffective.

1. Many materials do not take up water very well. It is nearly impossible to wet the material
evenly.
2. Water spray and mist system droplets are too large to capture airborne particles.
3. Over-wetting can create material handling issues like belt tracking and carry-back.
4. Water spray will freeze preventing cold weather operation.
5. Nozzles tend to plug due to the higher pressure drop at the nozzle discharge making
solids come out of suspension at the nozzle tip.
6. Water Sprays create a BTU penalty to materials used for fule such as coal or biomass
adding to the cost of power generation adding as much as 5% moisture to the fuel. See
Moisture Addition by Weight Chart.

Misting Systems are not Fog Systems. Misters use very high water pressure (600 to 1200 psi)
to squeeze the water through orifices as small as .006 of an inch. Our Dry Fog system essentially
produces droplets in the 1-10 micron size range (dry fog is defined as 1-10 micron droplets). See
Droplet Size Chart The dust that becomes airborne and is of concern to health and environmental
officials is called PM-10 or particulate matter 10 microns or smaller. A like size droplet to dust
particle size (PM-10) is essential as it is this like size that dramatically increases the opportunity
for the dry fog/water droplet to impact the airborne dust. Larger droplets (mist 20 to 100
microns) have proven to be ineffective in treating airborne particulate due to the slip stream
effect created by the droplet being larger than the dust. This concept was first explored by the
Colorado School of Mines in in the 1970s with the results being published in a 1976 Issue
of Coal Age Magazine

Compared to Wet Extraction

Wet extraction systems have been in use for

some time. Rotoclones, wet scrubbers and more recently dust extractors all require expensive
duct-work and create a secondary waste-stream of waste water to dispose of. They all have
moving parts that can fail as seen in the photo. Wet dust can collect on rotating fans, creating an
imbalance that can destroy bearings in short order.

Disadvantages of wet extraction compared to Dry Fog include:

1. Higher Capital and Operating Cost

2. Moving Parts to Repair and Replace

3. Requires Expensive Duct Work

4. Creates a Secondary Waste Stream to dispose of, possibly requiring new permits for waste
water discharge.

5. Will not be very effective on large open dump pockets unless combined with Dry Fog

Principle of Operation
AGGLOMERATION

The D.S.I. system agglomerates (attaches) the airborne dust particle to a water droplet so that the
particle becomes heavy enough to be returned to the product stream by the force of gravity. It is
similar to the technology utilized in wet scrubbers, where the dust-laden air is scrubbed or
cleaned by water droplets in a controlled environment. However, unlike a wet scrubber, the
D.S.I. system uses very little water and energy and a complex system of ductwork is not
required. In essence, wet scrubber technology is applied at each point of dust generation. The
following picture and quotation illustrates why the D.S.I. system works so efficiently.

"Consider a water droplet about to impinge on a dust particle, or what is aerodynamically

equivalent, a dust particle about to impinge on a water droplet, as shown in the drawing. If the
droplet diameter is much greater than the dust particle, the dust particle simply follows the air
stream lines around the droplet, and little or no contact occurs. In fact, it is difficult to impact
micron-size particles on anything, which is why inertial separators do not work well at these
sizes. If, on the other hand, the water droplet is of a size that is comparable to that of the dust
particle, contact occurs as the dust particle tries to follow the stream lines. Thus the probability
of impaction increases as the size of the water spray droplets decreases. This explains why water
"sprays" are not very effective on respirable dust; typical droplet sizes are 200-600 microns,
much larger tan the respirable dust, which is less than 5 microns. Thus, water sprays can be
improved by designing nozzles which produce smaller droplets." Coal Age Magazine, April
1976.

To achieve agglomeration at the dust source point, two conditions need to exist: (1.) Enough
water droplets of the same size as the dust particles have to be generated and sustained and (2.)
Both dust particles and water droplets have to be contained in an enclosed area so that
agglomeration can occur. generated and sustained and (2.) Both dust particles and water droplets
have to be contained in an enclosed area so that agglomeration can occur.
How Droplet Size Affects Agglomeration
Foggers

The design of the D.S.I. system is based on a unique device which can produce a very dense fog
of 1–10 micron size water droplets which literally blanket the dust source and keep the dust
particles from becoming airborne. It does this at a low cost, both from a capital and a
maintenance standpoint.

The D.S.I. fogger is an air driven acoustic oscillator for fogging liquids by passing them through
a field of high frequency sound waves. This is accomplished by compressing air upstream of
a specially designed converge section of the fogger. The result is an air stream that will
accelerate past the speed of sound in the converge section. When it passes the speed of sound, a
primary acoustical shock wave is generated at the mouth of the fogger. To further enhance the
fogging capabilities, a resonating chamber in the path of the air stream reflects the air stream
back at itself to amplify and compliment the primary shock wave.

Once this standing shock wave is generated, water is delivered through annular orifices where it
is first sheared into relatively small droplets. These small droplets are then carried by the primary
air stream into the intense shock wave where the sound energy is converted into work by
exploding the droplets into thousands of micron size droplets. After having done its work, the air
then escapes around the resonating chamber and carries the droplets downstream in a soft, low
velocity fog.

The design of this fogger has obvious benefits regarding the control of respirable dust. However,
its inherent design features also make it extremely reliable from a maintenance standpoint. Since
the D.S.I. fogger does not rely on high pressure in the water circuit to achieve maximum
atomization, wear problems are virtually eliminated as is the need for high pressure water pumps.
The D.S.I. fogger cleans itself while operating with high frequency sound waves much the same
way that a sonic laboratory cleaner works. The nozzle has no moving parts and is constructed
of 100% stainless steel as compared to some competitors who use brass parts. This eliminates
wear and corrosion and insures years of maintenance free service even with poor water quality as
many material handling plants have. Undissolved sediment in the water that is
larger than the liquid orifices is easily filtered out by
our system.

An actual high speed photograph of droplets

generated from an D.S.I. fogger. The droplets were captured on a greased microscope slide in a
chamber that was at 100%
R.H. to eliminate evaporation of the droplets. The small squares are 2 microns across. Any
fugitive dust particles encapsulated by such densely packed fog droplets has little or no chance of
escaping.