High temperature fabric filtration of industrial gases

The industrial application of fabric filtration of gases was limited for many years by the low thermal resistance of organic filter media; filtration temperatures were restricted to below about 275/sup 0/F. The introduction of silicone finished glass fabrics just over 10 years ago effectively doubled this limit, and glass fiber material remains today the only commercially available fabric in general use for high temperature gas filtration. The present paper attempts to assess the field of industrial filtration over 300/sub 0/F in a general way, but historically it tends to be dominated by considerations related to fiber glass. Other high temperature media (asbestos, fluorocarbons, silica, aluminum silicate, etc.) are not discussed because they do not appear to offer as great a potential for widespread industrial use in the immediate future.