UV kitchen exhaust system for grease and odour degradation in commercial kitchens

Chimney sweep imposes fire protection restrictions?
Will my insurance pay in the event of damage?
My neighbours feel disturbed by the smells!
Excessive cleaning costs and frequent repairing?

Decomposing greases and smells with UV reduces fire hazards

A fire may occur in commercial kitchens especially where greases deposit, e.g. in extractor hoods and exhaust air ducts. In such places, even a spark is enough to ignite the old grease.

Hence, even a small fire may rapidly spread and grow large if they are cleaned improperly or too rarely. Still, the use of fat and high temperatures cannot easily be avoided in most kitchens.
The consequences are major fire hazards and high costs for cleaning the kitchen and the hoods.

UV light destroys the bonds between the odour and fat molecules and breaks them into fragments. This prevents the deposition of grease in the hoods. And it reduces cleaning costs and avoids frequent repairing, e.g. of the fan.

Moreover, the exhaust air discharged into the environment is almost free from grease and odours. This pleases neighbours because objectionable odours are also neutralised. The UV technology allows compliance with regulatory requirements, such as VDI 2052 and DIN 16282.

Fire protection

Cooking creates greasy and odorous vapours. Some of the grease is trapped in the filters.

However, part of the grease passes by the filter and ends up in the exhaust air system. One way to prevent this is to install UV lamps in the extractor hood. They make sure odour and fat molecules no longer are a nuisance and can no longer do harm. The logical consequence: The exhaust air duct, and also the hood, remain almost free from grease and the fire hazard is greatly reduced.

More application examples:

UV solution for extractor hood

The management of the language school Humboldt Institut e.V. has been put under pressure from environmental agencies in the city to react to the odour complaints of one of the neighbours of the language school, otherwise the kitchen would need to shut down, leaving the students without meals. Upon visiting the kitchen facilities (a kitchen hood of around 4,000 cubic meters/hr, running 2 shifts of warm food and 1 shift of cold food), it was clear that UV could be a good solution.

Extractor hood with UV system

Especially the large kitchens in big shopping malls or office buildings require a good duct and filter system to keep the environment clean and hold odours back. In Chinese restaurants though, the grease pollution is high and the filters protecting the ventilation system of a real estate object in Birmingham had to be changed every week. These pricey filters made a lot of trouble. To save costs, time and disposal, Jacobs Bond Pascoe Ltd. installed a UV solution from Noblelight.

Kitchen exhaust air cleaning with UV in Heraeus canteen:

Especially in commercial kitchens, the use of fats and oils causes unpleasant smells and stubborn deposits in air outlet and extraction hoods. Fat separators in the kitchen air extraction hood can trap just up to 95% of the grease in the outgoing air. The rest is deposited in the hood casing and the exhaust air duct. This makes cleaning difficult, but above all it is unhygienic and, moreover, it means a high fire hazard. Noblelight has developed special vacuum UV lamps for kitchen exhaust air. In the wavelength of 185 nm (VUV), the fat molecules and odours are photolysed, destroyed and in this way neutralised.

Before installation of the UV solution

Before installation of the UV solution

3,000 hours after installation of the UV solution

3,000 hours after installation of the UV solution