Chapter 5

Design and Operation of Wet Dust Scrubbers

Contents

1. Introduction 107
2. Some Examples of Industrial Applications of Wet Dust Scrubbers. 108
2.1 Applications in Steel Industry . . 109
2.2 Applications in Foundry Industry. 112
2.3 Applications in Chemical Industry 113
2.4 Treatment of Contaminated Liquid 114
3. Fundamentals of Wet Dust Scrubbing 115
3.1 Dust Particle Collection by Liquid Drops 116
3.1.1 Basic Information on Dust Particle Collection 116
3.1.2 Particle Collection by High-Velocity Drop Movement 118
3.1.3 Particle Collection by High-Velocity Gas and Dust Particle Movement. 119
3.2 Generation of Interfacial Area between Gas and Liquid 121
3.2.1 Generation of Liquid Films 122
3.2.2 Generation of Liquid Jets 123
3.2.3 Generation of Drops . . . 124
3.2.4 Generation of Bubbles. . . 126
4. Design Calculations for Wet Dust Scrubbers 126
4.1 Calculation of Dust Collection Efficiency. . 126
4.2 Design Calculations for Column Scrubbers. 128
4.3 Design Calculations for Jet Scrubbers . . . 134
4.4 Design Calculations for Vortex Scrubbers . 135
4.5 Design Calculations for Rotating Disc Scrubbers 137
4.6 Design Calculations for Venturi Scrubbers . . . 139
5. Comparison and Selection of Wet Dust Scrubbers. 143
6. List of Symbols. 146
7. References . . . 147

1. Introduction

In dust scrubbers the dust particles are removed from a gas stream by a
dispersed liquid. The difference in the design of various scrubbers is primarily
due to the mechanism by which the liquid is dispersed.
Large-scale dust scrubbing was introduced at the end of the last century in
steel industry. In 1892, G. Zschocke was granted a patent for a wetted grid
scrubber. Although this scrubber was of a very crude design it was the most
H. Brauer et al., Air Pollution Control Equipment
Springer-Verlag Berlin, Heidelberg 1981
108 Chapter 5: Design and Operation of Wet Dust Scrubbers

effective dust removal apparatus available at that time. But only a' few years
later an even more effective dust scrubber was introduced in steel industry: the
disintegrator which is actually a dust removing machine. Both types of dust
removal equipment, namely scrubbing apparatus and scrubbing machines, have
been improved and new types have been developed in the following decades. In
the Federal Republic of Germany, about a hundred different designs for
scrubbing equipment are presently offered on the market. The same is probably
true of other highly industrialized countries. Most of the available designs fall
into one of the following five groups:
a) Column scrubber,
b) jet scrubber,
c) vortex scrubber,
d) Venturi scrubber,
e) scrubbing machines.
The dust removal process in a scrubber involves several steps:
a) Gas and dust conditioning, e.g. reduction of temperature and saturation with
water vapor,
b) dispersion of liquid, for instance by a gas stream, by pressure nozzles, and by
rotating discs,
c) collection of dust particles by liquid lamella or drops.
d) Removal of dust laden liquid from gas stream.
The liquid demand for scrubbing is of the order of 1 to 31 per m 3 of gas.
Wet dust scrubbers have found a wide field of application in various industries,
especially in steel, foundry, and chemical industry. Some examples will be
discussed in the next chapter.

2. Some Examples for Industrial Applications

of Wet Dust Scrubbers
Wet dust scrubbers may be applied in all industries whenever dust pollutes air
or gas streams. Examples for the application of wet dust scrubbers have therefore
to be taken only from a few industries that are of special inportance to the
industrial and technological development of a country. It is for this reason that
examples have been selected from steel and foundry industry and from chemical
industry.
Steel industry is characterized by very big units for the production of a single
product, namely steel. The consequence of a single product process is of course
the production of a large mass of pollutant at a constant rate. Large equipment
for pollution control is characteristic of steel industry.
Quite different is the situation in chemical industry. An extremely great
number of products and just as great a number of pollutants are characteristic
properties of chemical industry. The consequence is a multitude of relatively
small and medium size, pollution control plants. Some of these installations .are
designed for the treatment of effluents from several production plants.