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Wet Scrubber
The term wet scrubber describes a
variety of devices that remove
pollutants from a furnace flue gas or
from other gas streams. In a wet
scrubber, the polluted gas stream is
brought into contact with the
scrubbing liquid, by spraying it with
the liquid, by forcing it through a pool
of liquid, or by some other contact
method, so as to remove the

Types
Spray

scrubber
Plate scrubber
Packed-bed scrubber
Venturi scrubber
Cyclone scrubber
Baffle scrubber
Impingement-entrainment scrubber
Fluidized-bed scrubber.

ADVANTAGES
Small space requirements
No secondary dust sources
Handles high-temperature, high-humidity
gas streams
Minimal fire and explosion hazards
Ability to collect both gases and particulate
matter.

Disadvantages
Corrosion problems
High power requirement.
Water-disposal problems.
Difficult product recovery.

WORKING
It has a converging-diverging flow channel .
The decrease in area causes the waste gas

velocity and turbulence to increase

The scrubbing liquid is injected into the

scrubber slightly upstream of the throat or

directly into the throat section.
The scrubbing liquid is atomized by the

turbulence in the throat, improving gas-liquid

contact.

 The gas-liquid mixture then decelerates as it

moves through the diverging section
The liquid droplets are then separated from the
gas stream in an entrainment section, usually
consisting of a cyclonic separator and mist
eliminator.
A moving gas stream is used to atomize liquids
into droplets. High gas velocities (60 to 120 m/s)
lead to high relative velocities between gas and
particles and promote collection

THROATS

Venturis with round throats can handle inlet flows as

large as 88,000 m/h .

At inlet flow rates greater than this, achieving uniform

liquid distribution is difficult, unless additional weirs or
baffles are used. To handle large inlet flows, scrubbers
designed with long, narrow, rectangular throats have
been used.

Simple venturis have fixed throat areas and cannot be

used over a wide range of gas flow rates.

The size of the throat area is varied by moving a

plunger, or adjustable disk, up or down in the throat,
thereby decreasing or increasing the annular opening.

Adjustable-throat venturi
scrubber with movable plate

Adjustable-throat venturi
scrubber with plunger

Design parameters
(System Performance)
Particle size distribution : collection efficiency decreases with particulate
size because inertial forces become insignificant.
Waste gas flow rate: limited to lower waste gas flow rates and temperatures
than ESPs or bag houses.
Temperature : up to 400C (750F)
Relative velocity between the particle and the droplet : collection efficiency
increases with an increase in relative velocity (liquid- or gas-pressure input)
Pressure drop : collection efficiency comes at the cost of increased pressure
drop
Droplet size: Water drops a little larger than the particles is optimum to
achieve the sufficient number of collisions
Residence time : increasing the gas residence time should also increase the
particle/liquid contact time and the collection efficiency for small particles.
Not every collision between water and particles results in collection - due to
surface tension of droplet and particle wettability characteristics

 Venturi scrubbers are more expensive than spray

tower, cyclonic, or tray tower scrubbers
collection effi ciencies for fi ne PM are higher. .
Increasing the pressure drop in a venturi scrubber
increases the effi ciency, but the systems energy
demand also increases leading to greater
operational costs.

Capture Mechanisms

There are four types:

inertial impaction, interception,
diffusion, and/or absorption of the
pollutant onto droplets of liquid.
Inertial Impaction : particles with
diameters greater than 10 m are
generally collected using impaction.
The effectiveness of inertial impaction
increases with increasing particle size
and turbulent flow.

 Interception : particles that pass sufficiently close to a

water droplet are captured by interception, forparticles 0.11.0 m in diameter. Increasing the density of droplets in a
spray increases interception.
Diffusion : occurs as a result of both fluid motion and the

Brownian (random) motion of particles. Diffusional collection

effects are most significant for particles less than 0.1 m in
diameter.
Because of high gas velocities and short residence times

gravitational settling of particles is usually not a factor.

Electrostatic attraction is important only in cases where the

particles, liquid, or both, are being deliberately charged, or
where the scrubber follows an electrostatic precipitator.

Efficiency
where,

k = Scrubber coefficient (m 3 of gas/ m3 of liquid)

R = Liquid-to-gas flow rate (Q L/QG)
= internal impaction parameter

Internal impaction parameter

where,
c = Cunningham correction factor
p = particle density (kg/m 3)
Vg = speed of gas at throat (m/sec)
dp = diameter of particle (m)
dd = diameter of droplet (m)
= dynamic viscosity of gas, (Pa-S)

Efficiency increases with pressure loss and may be up to

95% for dp>5m.
Pressure loss (conventional scrubbers) 15 - 40 cm of water.