A baghouse is an air pollution control device that uses long cylindrical felt tubes as a filler medium. The polluted air enters the baghouse through hoppers; inside the scrubber, the gases move through fabric tubes that collect dust and particulate matter on their surface. Once a layer of dust has built up on the tubes and the air can no longer pass through, the cleaning process begins.

The collection of dust and particulate matter occurs via the following mechanisms: inertial collection, interception, Brownian movement, and electrostatic forces. These processes lead to a layer of dust accumulating on the filter surface.

Baghouse air scrubbers vary in the cleaning techniques used. In a mechanical shaker baghouse, the fabric tubes are fastened onto a horizontal plate at the bottom of the baghouse scrubber. The cleaning of the filter is done by shaking the plate from which the tubes are suspended.

Reverse-air baghouse air scrubbers clean the filters by injecting clean air in a reverse direction. The cleaning happens after the filtering process is stopped and the polluted air has already been scrubbed.

In reverse-jet baghouses, the dust cakes are broken and removed by a burst of compressed air injected over the fabric bags. To reinforce the bags and protect them from breaking during cleaning, metal cages are placed into the air scrubber.

Despite being highly effective at particulate matter collection, the baghouse air scrubber is not devoid of drawbacks. The main drawback of the baghouse is the need to replace the fabric bags frequently to ensure effective air scrubbing and prolong the baghouse lifetime. Different types of baghouse scrubbers have their disadvantages. For example, a mechanical shaker baghouse is not suitable for high temperatures and requires frequent replacement of bags. Reverse-air baghouse scrubbers require additional cleaning since the flow of reverse air creates a gentle cleaning action; residual dust buildup has no effective way of cleaning. Reverse-jet baghouse air scrubbers can not be used in high temperatures and humid environments.

Some of these concerns and problems may be alleviated by using specialized fabrics for filter tubes. However, other issues are innate to the baghouse air scrubbers and cannot be avoided.

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