May 2025 – Baghouse.com

Asphalt is everywhere. It’s under your tires on the highway, in the parking lot at the grocery store, and lining the roads in your neighborhood. Its use is so widespread that many of us take it for granted, never stopping to consider how it’s made — or the vital role dust collectors play in its production.

In the world of asphalt manufacturing, dust collection systems are essential equipment that protect workers, ensure clean operation, and help keep plants running efficiently and profitably.

Through the years, Baghouse.com has helped many asphalt plants design their systems, maintain, troubleshoot, and upgrade their systems. We have learned many good tips we would like to share with you in a series of three articles:

Asphalt Production & Dust Control (Part 1)
Asphalt Production & Baghouse Fines (Part 2)
Asphalt Production & Dust Collectors Design and Maintenance (Part 3)

Let’s first take a look at how asphalt is produced.

How Is Asphalt Made?

Asphalt is a black, sticky, and highly viscous liquid derived from crude oil.

Asphalt is a black, sticky, and highly viscous liquid derived from crude oil. It acts as a binding agent when mixed with aggregate materials like stone, gravel, or sand. When combined, they form what we commonly refer to as asphalt cement or simply asphalt.

Historically, natural deposits of asphalt were used, but today, virtually all asphalt used for commercial and industrial purposes comes from petroleum refining. The final product is a strong, durable paving material used primarily in road construction. In fact, asphalt is the most widely used material for building roads in the United States — and the country is home to around 3,600 hot mix asphalt plants, producing over 400 million metric tons of asphalt paving material annually.

These plants fall into two major categories: batch plants and drum mix plants.

The asphalt production process begins with the cold aggregate supply system (1), where different sizes of aggregates are fed into the plant. These materials are then transferred to the drum dryer (2), where they are heated by the coal burner (3). Fuel is delivered by the coal feeder (4). During the drying phase, dust generated is captured by the cyclone dust collector (5) and the finer particles are filtered out by the baghouse dust collector (6). The hot aggregates are lifted by the hot aggregate elevator (7) to the top of the tower, where they are sorted by size using the vibrating screen (8). The filler supply system (9) adds mineral fines, and everything is then weighed and blended in the weighing and mixing system (10). The final hot mix asphalt is stored in asphalt storage (11) and the bitumen supply system (12) provides the binder essential for forming the asphalt mix.

Take a look at how an Asphalt Plant works in the following video:

Where Does Dust Collection Come Into the Picture?

To understand where dust collection fits into the asphalt manufacturing process, it helps to walk through how a plant operates.

In drum mix plants, cold aggregates that have already been sized are fed into a rotating drum. Inside, the aggregates are dried, and at the end of the drum, asphalt cement is injected to coat them in a continuous process.

In batch plants, the aggregates are first dried in a rotary dryer, then screened into different sizes and stored in bins. These materials are then fed, batch by batch, into a pugmill mixer, where asphalt cement is added and mixed with the hot aggregate.

Both systems generate a considerable amount of dust during the drying and mixing phases — and that’s where dust collection systems become crucial.

A typical setup includes a drying drum connected via ductwork to a baghouse that captures airborne dust particles generated during the drying and mixing stages. Most systems also include cyclones to collect the larger, heavier particles before they reach the filters.

What Are Baghouse Fines?

Far from being useless, baghouse fines are sometimes reused in the asphalt mix itself as mineral fillers, depending on the mix design and application.

The fine particles collected by baghouses are called baghouse fines, or BFs. These are ultra-fine dust particles removed from the exhaust gas stream. Far from being useless, BFs are sometimes reused in the asphalt mix itself as mineral fillers, depending on the mix design and application.

In the United States alone, asphalt plants generate an estimated 6 to 8 million tons of baghouse fines annually. Proper handling and collection of these fines is not only critical for environmental compliance but also provides an opportunity for recycling and cost savings.

Why Are Collectors So Important?

About 40 to 50 percent of asphalt plants use baghouse systems for dust control. They are used to:

✧ Prevent fine particles from clogging downstream equipment
✧ Protect workers and the environment from harmful emissions
✧ Maintain proper airflow and temperature balance in the drying process
✧ Allow for the reuse of valuable fines in the mix

Without a reliable collector, dust can accumulate rapidly inside the plant, leading to unnecessary wear on machinery, unplanned shutdowns, and even fire hazards. And when an asphalt plant experiences downtime, every minute lost translates to significant revenue loss — especially on tightly scheduled road work projects.

A Team That Helps Asphalt Plants Stay Clean and Productive

Baghouse.com has supported many asphalt plants across North America, helping operators troubleshoot, repair, and upgrade their dust collection systems. From replacing worn-out aramid filters, upgrading to pleated elements for better airflow, to retrofitting baghouses for improved cleaning performance — we’ve seen it all.

Our team of engineers and field technicians has worked hand-in-hand with hot mix asphalt plants across the country, and we understand the challenges asphalt producers face: high temperatures, tight spaces, short timelines, and the constant need to reduce downtime and stay compliant with environmental regulations.

So whether you’re planning your next plant move or struggling with pressure drop or bag failure, we’re here to help you keep your operation clean, safe, and productive.

Stay tuned for the second and third parts of this series of articles!

Need help with your asphalt plant’s dust collection system? Contact us today at Baghouse.com — because your uptime depends on it.

Images Credit:

By Unknown author – http://www.asphaltplant.cn direct link, CC BY 1.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36614371

By Trougnouf (Benoit Brummer) – Own work, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=77336217

By Lord Mountbatten – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23036022

Let’s be honest—everyone’s trying to save money. And in the world of dust collection, that often means stretching your filter life just a little bit longer. Maybe a lot longer.

On paper, it makes sense. Filters aren’t cheap, and if you can get 18 or 24 months out of them (or in some applications even longer), instead of changing them every year, that’s real savings for the maintenance budget. But here’s the catch: filters don’t just slowly deteriorate. They clog, leak, harden, tear, and—if ignored too long—can turn your entire dust collection system into a headache.

So how do you actually strike the right balance between baghouse performance and reducing operating costs? Let’s take a walk through the plant floor and talk through what works (and what really doesn’t).

The Smart Way to Know When It’s Time to Change Your Filters

Here’s what we see a lot: some facilities change filters once a year like clockwork. Others wait until filters start leaking like a sieve. A few smart ones monitor differential pressure (DP) and start planning replacement once the readings begin to creep consistently above normal. And then… there are those who wait for disaster—a fire, visible emissions, or a complete loss of suction—before doing anything.

Monitoring differential pressure (DP) regularly and observing its trends will tell you when is best to start planning a filter changeout

If you’re only using one of those approaches, you’re probably either wasting money or risking performance. The truth is, the best results come when you combine multiple inputs to guide your decision: schedule, DP trends, emissions monitoring, and even basic visual inspections. If you can, throw in a triboelectric monitoring system to catch leaks early and keep track of overall bag performance. It doesn’t have to be expensive tech—it just has to give you enough data to make a smart call.

Read the article:

➤ How Often Should Baghouse Filters Be Changed?

What’s the Real Cost of “Saving Money”?

Yes, filters cost money. But what about:

🔴 Downtime when suction drops and production is interrupted?
🔴 Failed inspections that lead to fines or extra paperwork?
🔴 Product quality issues because dust is settling where it shouldn’t?
🔴 Worker exposure to airborne dust when the suction can’t keep up?

These are real, measurable costs—and they often don’t show up until after you’ve stretched your filter life too far. Old filters mean high DP, and high DP means fans work harder, energy bills go up, suction goes down, and eventually, you’ve got clogged machines or exposed workers.

Not worth it.

A Smart Plan: Use a Combination of Clues

Visually inspect during shutdowns—look for bag hardening, holes, or excessive dust buildup.

There’s no single answer for when to change your filters. But here’s a solid framework that’s worked well for many of our customers:

Set a baseline schedule based on your baghouse size, dust type, and usage patterns.
Track differential pressure. Don’t panic at every spike, but look at the trend.
Visually inspect during shutdowns—look for bag hardening, holes, or excessive dust buildup.
Use leak detection systems to catch issues before they lead to emissions violations, like a triboelectric broken bag detector.

Read the article:

➤ How Can I Tell When I Need to Replace My Baghouse Filters? (FAQ Series)

Use Higher-Quality Filter Media

Upgrading to premium filters might feel like an unnecessary cost at first. Why spend more when the cheap bags “get the job done,” right? But here’s the thing: better filters don’t just last longer—they perform better.

investing in PTFE-membrane bags or pleated filter elements can give you lower operating differential pressure (meaning less energy use), better filtration efficiency (which helps keep emissions low), and longer service life (sometimes 2–3 times longer than standard felt bags).

Investing in pleated filter elements can give you lower operating differential pressure, better filtration efficiency, and longer service life

For example, investing in PTFE-membrane bags or pleated filter elements can give you lower operating differential pressure (meaning less energy use), better filtration efficiency (which helps keep emissions low), and longer service life (sometimes 2–3 times longer than standard felt bags).

We’ve worked with plants that doubled their filter life by switching to a more durable media suited for their application, like a bakery using high-temp aramid bags for greasy exhaust, or a steel plant switching to PTFE for sticky fumes. Yes, the initial cost went up, but their cost-per-month of operation actually dropped, and they had fewer changeouts and shutdowns.

So the takeaway? Take a look at your process, your dust, your temperature, and your emissions goals. Sometimes spending a little more upfront saves a lot more down the line.

Train Your In-House Maintenance Staff

Another often overlooked cost-saver: invest in your team. A lot of plants rely on outside contractors for even basic baghouse maintenance—inspections, troubleshooting, filter changes. And while there’s a time and place for bringing in experts (especially for major rebuilds or testing), training your in-house maintenance team can pay off fast.

They can respond to issues faster and learn to spot small issues (like seal leaks or valve failures) before they snowball into expensive downtime. Even just one or two maintenance techs trained in baghouse basics (like checking DP trends, inspecting filters, and doing minor pulse valve repairs) can dramatically reduce long-term maintenance costs.

Training courses, like Baghouse.com training programs, adapt to the time and pace of your personnel.

Don't Let Cost Cutting Cut Into Performance

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from years in the field, it’s this: your baghouse doesn’t need to be the most expensive part of your plant, but it does need to work properly. Trying to save money by squeezing out a few more months of filter life might feel smart today, but it often backfires tomorrow.

Balance is everything. Monitor multiple indicators, make small adjustments, and plan filter changes like you would any other piece of critical equipment maintenance.

Asphalt Production & Dust Control (Part 1)