What Is Clean-on-Demand and Why Is It Better Than Timer-Based Cleaning?

By Omela Filtration – Industrial Filtration Experts

Industry Background and Challenges

Most industrial dust collector systems rely on pulse-jet cleaning to maintain stable airflow and filtration performance. Traditionally, many systems operate using timer-based cleaning, which triggers compressed air pulses at fixed intervals regardless of the filter condition.

While simple, timer-based cleaning often leads to two serious problems:

• Over-cleaning, which wears out filter bags prematurely and increases compressed air consumption.
• Under-cleaning, which allows pressure drop to rise, reducing airflow and increasing energy load on the fan.

In industries such as power generation, steel production, cement manufacturing, and chemical processing, operators demand higher filtration efficiency, lower operating costs, and longer service life of baghouse filter bags. This has led to the adoption of clean-on-demand systems, also known as differential pressure (DP) controlled cleaning.

Working Principle and Technical Explanation

Clean-on-demand uses real-time monitoring of differential pressure across the baghouse filter bags to determine the optimal moment for cleaning.

How It Works:

1. Differential pressure sensors measure air resistance between the dirty air plenum and clean air plenum.
2. When pressure reaches a high limit (e.g., 1500 Pa or 6 inWC), the control board initiates a cleaning cycle.
3. Cleaning continues only until differential pressure falls to a lower setpoint (e.g., 1000 Pa or 4 inWC).
4. The system then stops pulsing until filter resistance increases again.

By contrast, timer-based systems activate pulses every 10–20 seconds whether the filter needs cleaning or not.

Why Clean-on-Demand Is Better:

Clean-on-demand helps maintain a stable dust cake layer on PTFE, PPS, or p84 filter bags, improving filtration efficiency and extending their working life.

Omela Filtration Solutions and Advantages

Omela Filtration engineers design and retrofit clean-on-demand pulse control systems for new and existing dust collectors.

Advantages of Omela Clean-on-Demand Solutions:

• ✅ Energy Savings: Reduced compressed air consumption and lower fan load.
• ✅ Longer Filter Life: Less mechanical stress on PTFE, PPS, and fiberglass filter bags.
• ✅ Stable Filtration Efficiency: Maintains an optimal dust cake for submicron filtration.
• ✅ Smart Monitoring: Integrated pressure sensors and auto-diagnostics detect abnormal ΔP trends.
• ✅ Retrofit-Friendly: Can be installed on most existing pulse-jet dust collectors.

Applications Across Industries

Clean-on-demand systems are particularly effective in processes with fluctuating dust loading, temperature, or moisture:

In each of these environments, intelligent cleaning helps protect filtration media and maintain consistent air quality.