Dear All,

Many of you involved in engineering and design of wet scrubbing systems are
already familiar with Venturi Scrubbers.
Venturi Scrubbers are primarily designed to control fine particulate matter (PM)
from gaseous streams. Before releasing waste gases that contain PM to the
atmosphere, these gases are treated using venturi scrubbers to remove PM.
Generally the effective range of PM removal is from 10 microns to 2.5 microns.
They are also capable of some incidental control of Volatile Organic
Compounds, which, however is not their primary function. They can also be
used for capturing high solubility gases which have good solubility with the
sprayed liquid.
Venturi scrubbers have high efficiencies when capturing PM in the range of 0.5-5
micron.
Venturi scrubbers have following typical industrial applications:
a. Boiler waste gases utilizing coal, oil, biomass and liquid waste
b. Metal Processing Iron & Steel, Aluminum
c. Wood, Pulp & Paper Industry
d. Chemical Industries
e. Municipal Solid Waste Incinerators
For a detailed description on venturi scrubbers refer the Wikipedia link below:
http://en.wikipedia....enturi_scrubber
Todays blog entry relates to some design equations for evaluating liquid droplet
diameter, collection efficiency, throat velocity, throat diameter, throat length and
pressure drop for venturi scrubbers:
Liquid Mean Droplet Size or Sauter Mean Diameter
Nukiyama & Tanasawa Correlation

dl = (0.000585/vr)*sqrt(/l) + 0.0597*(l
/sqrt(/l))^0.45*(Ql/Qg)^1.5
where:
dl = mean droplet diameter, m
vr = relative velocity of gas to liquid, m/s = v g vl vg
Note: In most cases, the gas velocity is much higher than the liquid velocity and
vr may be considered equal to vg
= liquid surface tension, N/m
l = liquid density, kg/m3
l = liquid viscosity, Pa.s
Ql = volumetric flow rate of liquid, m3/s
Qg = volumetric flow rate of liquid, m3/s

Boll et. al Correlation

dl = (0.042 +0.00565*(1000*Ql / Qg)) / vr^1.602

Collection Efficiency

= 1 e^(-k*R*sqrt())----(1)
where:
= collection efficiency of the venture scrubber, fraction
k = correlation coefficient whose value depends on system geometry and
operating conditions (typically 0.1-0.2)
R = liquid-to-gas ratio, m3/1000 m3
= inertial impaction parameter, dimensionless
Note: R values between 0.936 m3/1000 m3 and 1.337 m3/1000 m3 provide
optimum collection efficiency

= C*dp^2*p*vt / (9*g*dl)-----(2)
where:
C = Cunningham Slip correction factor, dimensionless

C = 1 + (0.000621*Tg / (dp*10^6))-----(3)
Tg = inlet gas absolute temperature, K
dp = particle diameter, m
p = particle density, kg/m3
vt = throat velocity, m/s
g = gas viscosity, Pa.s
dl = liquid mean droplet diameter, m
Normally collection efficiency is an input, so re-writing equation (1) in terms of :

= (ln(1-) /(k*R))^2-----(4)
Since we want to know the throat velocity, re-writing equation (2) in terms of v t:

vt = *9*g*dl / (C*dp^2*p)-----(5)
Throat Length

lt = 369.561*R^0.293 / vt^1.127
where:
lt = throat length, m
R = liquid-to-gas ratio in L/m3 (to convert m3/1000 m3 to L/m3 multiply m3/1000
m3 with 0.001)
vt = throat velocity, m/s
Throat Area

At = Qg / vt
where:
At = throat area, m2
Qg = process gas flow rate, m3/s
vt = throat velocity, m/s
Pressure Drop in Venturi Scrubbers (Hesketh Equation)

P = 0.532*vt^2*g*At^0.133*(0.56 + 16.6*(Ql/Qg) +
40.7*(Ql/Qg)^2)
where:
P = Pressure drop, Pa
vt = throat velocity, m/s
g = gas density downstream of throat, kg/m3
At = throat area, m2
Ql = volumetric flow rate of liquid, m3/s
Qg = volumetric flow rate of gas, m3/s
Hope the readers of this blog entry have now some idea about the design
equations related to venturi scrubbers. Please note that the liquid-to-gas ratios
are basically ratios and any set of volumetric flow rate units may be used as long
as they are consistent for both liquid and gas.
The entire blog entry has been a compilation from various resources related to
Venturi scrubbers. However the following resources can be referenced from the
links provided below:
http://web2.clarkson... Dev_120408.pdf
http://tean.teikoz.g...ations/12_3.pdf
http://books.google....bber Pa&f=false
I will try my best to provide answers to any questions raised. All these equations
are programmable in an excel spreadsheet.
Regards,
Ankur.