Seawater Scrubbing

Desulfurization: A Model for

SO2 Absorption in Fall-Down
Droplets
Giuseppe Caiazzo,a Antonio Di Nardo,b Giuseppe Langella,a and Fabrizio Scalac
a
DIME, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanica per l’Energetica, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Via Claudio 21,
Napoli 80125, Italy; giulange@unina.it (for correspondence)
b
ENEA C.R. Casaccia, Via Anguillarese 301, Casaccia, Roma, Italy
c
Istituto di Ricerche sulla Combustione, CNR, Piazzale Tecchio 80, Napoli 80125, Italy

Published online 23 March 2011 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ep.10541

An unsteady model of SO2 absorption in fall-down
spherical seawater droplets is presented, focused on
marine diesel engine exhaust gas scrubbing. The
model evaluates the amount of sulfur dioxide
absorbed by a single droplet, with given initial veloc-
ity, diameter, and alkalinity, falling counter-flow
with respect to the exhaust gas stream. Kinematics of
the droplet, heat exchange, and evaporation has been
considered, taking into account internal circulation.
Neutralization of absorbed sulfur species in the drop-
let has been modeled with a global and fast reaction
mechanism. Transport equations for species inside the
droplet have been solved on a nonuniform computa-
tional grid, which is regenerated at every time step to
account for droplet diameter reduction. The single-
droplet model has been incorporated in a simple
scrubber plug-flow model, to evaluate the desulfuriza-
tion efficiency and the seawater supply rate under re-
alistic marine engine exhaust gas desulfurization
conditions. The influence of flue gas inlet tempera-
ture, flue gas velocity, initial droplet size, and velocity
on the scrubbing process were investigated. Results of
this model are valuable for judging the feasibility and
operating costs of this SO2 scrubbing technique com-
Additional Supporting Information may be found in the online
version of this article.
Ó 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers
pared with alternative methods. Ó 2011 American Institute
of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 31: 277–287, 2012
Keywords: seawater, wet scrubber, diesel, absorp-
tion, SO2, model, gas
INTRODUCTION
SOx pollutions from marine diesel engines repre-
sent a serious problem that has been faced by inter-
national regulations (IMO Annex VI of MARPOL 73/
78 [1]). At present, using low sulfur content fuels is
preferred to flue gas scrubbing applications for eco-
nomic reasons. However, the increasing cost of fossil
fuels and the stricter emission limits under considera-
tion for marine engines have renewed the interest in
developing specific scrubbing systems, and perspec-
tives of a larger diffusion of SOx scrubbers is growing
up.
Flue gas desulfurization (FGD) is typically per-
formed in wet scrubbers, where the absorption mean
is a water slurry containing fine particles of limestone
(or other alkaline absorbent species). In this way,
SOx absorption rate is enhanced by reaction with dis-
solved particles, which provide a continuous alkaline
reagent supply. However, it has been suggested that
in areas close to the sea seawater scrubbing is an
economically attractive solution rather than a slurry,
where scrubbing performance relies on seawater nat-
ural alkalinity [2]. The advantages of using seawater

Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.31, No.2) DOI 10.1002/ep July 2012 277
involve simple plant design, no addition of chemicals
and no solid by-products. The acidified effluent can
be discharged directly into the sea, after a further
neutralization step obtained by mixing with fresh sea-
water and additional forced oxidation of sulfite ions
by air blowing.
The employment of wet scrubbing systems in
marine engine application is a quite recent issue.
Since its large availability, seawater scrubbing is an
appealing choice for exhaust gas desulfurization in
ships [3, 4]. Specific requirements for maritime scrub-
bing systems include low energy consumption and
pressure drop, simplicity and adaptability to existing
equipment, stability and control simplicity. One pos-
sible candidate technology meeting these require-
ments is spray scrubbing. However, the feasibility of
this technology must be studied, especially as regards
the required seawater supply rate necessary to obtain
a reasonable desulfurization efficiency. With this
respect, a spray scrubber model focused on the use
of seawater under maritime diesel engine exhaust
conditions would be of great value, thus avoiding to
perform costly experimental tests.
The complexity and the huge number of mecha-
nism involved in the process of sulfur dioxide
absorption in a water droplet make impossible to
obtain exact solutions of the problem. The availability
of powerful computers makes instead numerical solu-
tion of the describing equations more practicable.
Most of the modeling work reported so far in the lit-
erature was concerned with SO2 scavenging by rain-
water in the atmosphere. Early works neglected drop-
let internal circulation, although it has been shown to
be significant for droplet sizes typically found in rain-
water [5]. The first comprehensive model taking into
account both liquid phase and gas phase detailed
flow fields, as well as sulfur chemistry in the liquid
phase, was reported by Baboolal et al. [5]. They
showed that the fluid motion inside and outside a
drop flowing at terminal velocity considerably enhan-
ces diffusion and thereby the solute mass transfer,
especially for large drops. The analysis was extended
by Muginstein et al. [6] and Akbar and Ghiaasiaan [7],
who considered the presence of a reacting dissolving
solid in a slurry droplet, focusing on SO2 removal
from flue gas in spray towers. A further extension
was carried out by Chen [8], who considered the
influence of particle deceleration under the effect of
the drag force. However, all these authors did not
consider droplet evaporation in the analysis. The
effect of condensation or evaporation of water on the
absorption process in a stationary droplet was investi-
gated by Huckaby and Ray [9]. They noted that these
phenomena cause respectively an increase or a
reduction of surface temperature. Since the solubility
is a function of temperature, the consequence is an
increase of the absorption rate in case of evaporation
and a decrease in case of condensation.
Up to now, no published model has been
applied to SO2 absorption in seawater drops. The
aim of this study was to develop an unsteady model
of this process that includes all physical and chemi-
cal processes relevant to realistic flue gas spray
278 July 2012 Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.31, No.2) DOI 10.1002/ep
scrubbing conditions. Internal circulation, droplet
deceleration and evaporation, mass and heat
exchange between the phases, as well as sulfur spe-
cies neutralization reaction, have been considered in
the model. Transport equations for species inside
the droplet have been numerically solved on a non-
uniform computational grid, which is regenerated at
every time step to account for droplet diameter
reduction. Finally, the single-droplet model has been
incorporated in a simple scrubber plug-flow model
to extract practical indications on the feasibility of
the process.
ABSORPTION PHENOMENA IN A SEAWATER DROPLET
Unlike classical wet scrubbing applications (which
use an alkaline absorbent slurry for sulphur capture),
seawater applications rely on natural alkalinity,
defined as the sum of the concentrations of the
alkaline species contained in seawater. The value of
alkalinity is not fixed, but changes according to the
geographical area. In a general way, seawater alkalin-
ity can be expressed as follows [4]:


2

 
AT ¼ HCO
3 þ 2 CO3 þ B OHÞ
4 þ ½OH





þ HPO2
þ 2 PO3
þ SiOðOHÞ
3 þ ½NH3 
4

4

þ ½HS

½Hþ 
HSO
4
½HF
½H3 PO4  ð1Þ
where the first species ([HCO23 ]) represents the domi-
nating contribution to seawater alkalinity.
In the case of a seawater spray tower, an ensemble
of falling-down droplets encounters counter-currently
the exhaust gas flow, which contains sulfur oxides.
When a single droplet is exposed to the exhaust gas
stream, an SO2 flux establishes towards the liquid–gas
interface. SO2 equilibrium between gas and liquid
phases at the droplet surface can be assumed to fol-
low Henry’s law [10, 11]:
½SO2 ðaqÞ
pSO2 ¼ (2)
kH
In the first stage of the process, when the seawater
droplet is still rich in alkaline species, SO2 is sud-
denly consumed at the surface within a thin layer
and is unable to penetrate into the droplet. Chemical
interaction between sulfur dioxide and alkaline sub-
stances can be treated as follows [4]:
SO2 ðgÞ ! SO2 ðaqÞ (3:I)
SO2 ðaqÞ þ 2H2 OðlÞ ! HSO
þ
3 ðaqÞ þ H3 O ðaqÞ (3:II)
HSO
2
þ
3 ðaqÞ þ H2 OðlÞ ! SO3 ðaqÞ þ H3 O ðaqÞ (3:III)
HCO
þ
3 ðaqÞ þ H3 O ðaqÞ ! CO2 ðaqÞ þ 2H2 OðlÞ (3:IV)
CO2 ðaqÞ ! CO2 ðgÞ (3:V)
Adding member by member the three reactions
3.II–3.IV, a simplified expression of the chemical
processes inside the droplet can be obtained:
Table 1. Initial conditions of the model. exhaust flue gas was estimated on the basis of the
sulfur content of the fuel (see Appendix).
dp (t 5 0) 0.5–1.5 mm
up (t 5 0) 1 m/s
Tp (t 5 0) 300 K Droplet Motion Inside the Bulk Gas
AT (t 5 0) 1200–4800 lmol/kg Droplet motion equation is obtained through a
Tg 500–850 K simple forces balance in a one-dimensional Lagran-
ug 0.5–2 m/s gian reference frame.
[SO2]g 640–850 ppm
duP 1 
¼ ug
uP þ a (4:I)
dt sp

SO2 ðaqÞ þ H2 OðlÞ þ HCO

3 ðaqÞ

! H3 Oþ ðaqÞ þ SO3 ðaqÞ þ CO2 ðaqÞ

2
dxP
(3:VI) ¼ uP (4:II)
dt

Considering that the diffusion coefficient is similar where:

for all the ions species involved, alkaline species can
be represented by a single species ([HCO2 3 ]), having a 24qP dP2
concentration equal to the sum of the all alkaline sp ¼ (5:I)
18lg CD Re
species. So, it is possible to model the SO2-alkalines
reaction with the global reaction (3.VI), assumed to
be very fast.  
Internal circulation and diffusion assure a contin- qg dP uP
ug 
Re ¼ (5:II)
uous supply of alkaline species at the droplet inter- lg
face. Internal circulation is guaranteed by an inter-
nal vortex motion, caused by the shear stress
exerted by the gas flow on the droplet surface.
While the alkaline species content decreases, diffu- 24   b3 Re
CD ¼ 1 þ b1 Re b2 þ (5:III)
sion and circulation cannot supply a sufficient Re b4 Re
amount of alkaline reagent and SO2 is transported
to the droplet center. At the same time, SO2 con-
centration increases at the interface and the mass  
flux from the exhaust gas decreases because of the g qP
qg
concentration gradient reduction. Therefore, the a¼ (5:IV)
qP
problem is certainly unsteady, contrary for example
to the case where the reagent is supplied continu-
ously from solid particles.
qP ¼
0:003TP2 þ 1:5061TP þ 816:97 (5:V)
ABSORPTION MODEL
The absorption model consists of two separate  
parts. In the first one, named Droplet Tracking, after b1 ¼ exp 2:3288
6:4581/ þ 2:4486/2 (5:VI)
definition of the initial conditions, droplet velocity,
trajectory, and heat exchange with the gas-phase are
numerically evaluated. The second part represents
the real absorption model: here, transport equations b2 ¼ 0:0964 þ 0:5565/ (5:VII)
are solved for both SO2 and alkaline species in a
nonsymmetrical two-dimensional polar grid. Droplet
velocity, trajectory, and evaporation rate are retained b3 ¼ expð4:905
13:8944/ þ 18:422/2
10:2599/3
as independent from the SO2 absorption process. For
(5:VIII)
this reason, Droplet Tracking results are stored and
subsequently recalled in the absorption code, named
SO2 Absorption.
b4 ¼ expð1:4681 þ 12:2584/
20:7322/2 þ 15:885/3
Initial Conditions (5:IX)
The initial conditions assumed in the calculations
are summarized in Table 1. and / is a shape factor equal to 1 for a spherical
Different values of initial droplet diameter have droplet.
been tested, typical for droplets in spray towers. Droplets collisions have been neglected. Equations
Standard values for the initial alkaline concentration 5.I and 5.II have been treated with the finite differen-
has been chosen, whereas SO2 concentration in the ces method, leading to the following expressions:

Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.31, No.2) DOI 10.1002/ep July 2012 279

Dt
  
Dt 
ðtþ1Þ
uP ¼ utP þ e sp utP
utg
asp e sp
1 (6:I)

 
ðtþ1Þ
xP ¼ xPt þ Dt utg þ asp

Dt
 
þ sp 1
e sp utP
utg
asp (6:II)

Heat exchange between droplet and gas phase

has been taken in account. The droplet initial tem- Figure 1. Droplet internal vortex motion.
perature is 300 K, whereas the typical temperature
range of flue gas from the engine is 500–850 K.
The behavior of droplet temperature has been stud-
ied in two different temperature ranges, TP < Tbp,
and TP 5 Tbp. Droplet heating and evaporation are The mass transfer coefficient Kc can be again
assumed to be independent of the SO2 absorption obtained by the Ranz-Marshall equation [12]:
process.
When TP < Tbp, a simple heat balance (where the KC d P
mass reduction of the droplet by vaporization is ¼ 2:0 þ 0:6Reg1=2 Sc1=3 (13)
De
taken in account) gives the droplet temperature
behavior with time:
It is unlikely that the droplet reaches the boiling
dTP   dmP temperature, indicated as Tbp. Anyway, in this case
mP cP;P ¼ hAP Tg
TP þ hfg the droplet temperature is constant till complete
dt dt
 4  evaporation of the droplet itself, and the diameter
þ AP "P r #r
TP4 (7) reduction is expressed as follows:
where hfg is the latent heat of evaporation and:   
d ð dP Þ 4Kg  pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi cP;g Tg
TP
 1=4 ¼ 1 þ 0:23 ReP ln 1 þ
G dt qP cP;g dP hfg
#r ¼ (8:I)
4r (14)
Z
Once the droplet motion and the heat equations
G¼ IdX (8:II) are solved, velocity, trajectory, temperature, and di-
X¼4p ameter can be plotted versus time.

The Ranz-Marshall equation [12] is used to calcu-

late the convective coefficient value: SO2 Absorption
hdP The absorption model is based on the species
¼ 2:0 þ 0:6Reg1=2 Pr 1=3 (9) transport equations; alkalines and SO2 have been
Kg indicated with A and B, respectively:

Mass reduction of the droplet follows Eq. 10, @ ðqCA Þ

which becomes Eq. 11 (finite differences method): þ r  ðquCA Þ ¼ r  ðDe rCA Þ þ SC;A þ RA
@t
  (15:I)
NH2 O ¼ KC CH2 O;surface
CH2 O;g (10)

@ ðqCB Þ
þ r  ðquCB Þ ¼ r  ðDe rCB Þ þ SC;B þ RB
ðtþ1Þ
mP ¼ mtP
NH2 O AP ðMÞH2 O Dt (11) @t
(15:II)
CH2 O;surface and CH2 O;g can be expressed as follows:
r  ðquC Þ, r  ðDe rC Þ, Sc, and R are the convective
p TP term, the diffusive term, the source term, and the
CH2 O;surface ¼ SAT (12:I) reaction term, respectively.
R TP
The reaction term has been modeled as follows:

CH2 O;g ¼ XH2 O

pg
(12:II) RA;B ¼
K   CA  CB (16)
R  Tg
where K* is the kinetic constant. Since a fast reaction
where XH2 O is the molar fraction of water in the has been assumed, K* has been estimated equal to
exhaust gas. 108 [4].

280 July 2012 Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.31, No.2) DOI 10.1002/ep
 The presence of the source term SC is justified by The assumption is that the seawater flow can be consid-
droplet evaporation; SC expresses the amount of alka- ered as a system of independent droplets; gas cooling
line species and SO2 in the evaporated layers, which and humidification are taken in account using heat and
are added to the surface. mass balance equations between gas and liquid phases.
To solve the species transport equations inside the The plug-flow model is meant as a preliminary analysis
droplet, the velocity field is needed for the convec- about the scrubbing efficiency of a seawater scrubber.
tive terms. Droplet sizes in spray scrubbers are of the Both gas phase and droplets motion are retained
order of 1 mm in diameter and can be considered to one-dimensional and in steady state conditions. By
remain spherical and nonoscillating [6]. The flow naming c the space variable, heat and mass balance
inside the droplet is assumed to be similar to Hills on a single volume element can be written as:
vortex (Figure 1) and with the hypothesis of inviscid
flow, the internal circulation can be described by the Mass transfer
Stoke’s stream function, in polar coordinates:
mg ðcÞ
mg ðc þ 1Þ ¼ NP ½mP ðcÞ
mP ðc þ 1Þ ð18:IÞ
1  
WL ¼ Ar 2 R 2
r 2 sin2 u (17:I)
2
u
A¼ 1  (17:II)
2R 2 qql þ 1
g

The partial derivative respect r and y of the stream

function gives the velocity components in polar coor-
dinates, so there is no need to solve Navier-Stokes
equations with this hypothesis.
Transport equations have been numerically solved
for a two-dimensional polar grid. After a sensitivity
analysis, the total number of nodes has been fixed at
50 tangentially and 50 radially (Figure 2). The central
differencing scheme has been used to evaluate con-
vective face fluxes. Grid nodes are nonuniformly
radially distributed; steeper gradients are expected
near the interface, so in this region the grid has been
refined with a certain distribution function. Droplet
evaporation implies a diameter reduction in time;
since a fixed numbers of radial nodes have been
used, the computational grid is regenerated at the be-
ginning of each time step. Therefore, it is necessary
to update species concentrations on nodes in the
new positions. New nodes radial coordinates are
obtained with the same distribution function, based
on the updated droplet radius. Once the new posi-
tions are recalculated, nodes concentration values are
interpolated with respect to the old ones.

Plug-Flow Model
The behavior of a single droplet can be extended to
a whole seawater flow using a simple plug-flow model.

Figure 2. Two dimensional polar grid, dp (t 5 0) 5

1 mm. [Color figure can be viewed in the online
issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.] Figure 3. Modeling strategy.

Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.31, No.2) DOI 10.1002/ep July 2012 281
Figure 4. (a–d) Droplet diameter, velocity, trajectory, temperature for dP (t 5 0) 5 1 mm and dP (t 5 0) 5
0.5 mm. uP (t 5 0) 5 1 m/s, ug 5 2 m/s. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is
available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

Figure 5. Droplet reduction versus time. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at
wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

Heat transfer
mg ðc þ 1ÞcP;g Tg ðc þ 1Þ
mg cP;g Tg ðcÞ


¼ NP mP ðc þ 1ÞcP;H2 O TP ðc þ 1Þ
mP ðcÞcP;H2 O TP ðcÞ
þ þNP hfg ½mP ðcÞ
mP ðc þ 1Þ ð18:IIÞ
NP represents the number of droplets (in the volume
element), and hfg is the heat of evaporation. Figure 3
shows the modeling strategy used for the plug-flow
model. Droplet motion equations (excluding absorp-
tion) are solved using the plug-flow equations, itera-

282 July 2012 Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.31, No.2) DOI 10.1002/ep
Figure 6. (a,b) Alkaline species and SO2 contours map, for t 5 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2 s. [Color figure can be viewed
in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]
Figure 7. Akaline and SO2 concentration versus drop-
let radius. [Color figure can be viewed in the online
issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]
tively until convergence. Given the gas temperature
along the scrubber, temperature and diameter of the
droplets, a similar iterative technique is used for SO2
absorption: droplet species transport equations are
solved using a certain gas SO2 distribution along the
scrubber, which is then updated on the basis of the
absorbed amount of sulfur dioxide, until convergence.
RESULTS
Single Droplet
Droplet Tracking results are shown in Figure 4.
Droplet temperature, diameter, velocity, and trajec-
tory versus time are reported in Figure 4 as a function
of the main operating variables. Two typical droplet
initial diameters have been considered, whereas the
gas velocity is retained constant and equal to 2 m/s.
From Figure 4a, it is evident that for an initial droplet
diameter of 0.5 mm at some point the droplet is car-
ried back by the counter-current gas flow. On the
contrary, trajectory inversion does not happen for a
droplet with initial diameter equal to 1 mm; in this
case the droplet accelerates until reaching its terminal
velocity and heats up until a constant temperature,
Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.31, No.2) DOI 10.1002/ep
without reaching the boiling point. Thus, the droplet
initial diameter is a very important parameter, since
the absence of trajectory inversion is required for the
correct operation of a scrubbing tower. In the follow-
ing analysis, only droplets larger or equal than 1 mm
have been considered.
At the end of the calculation time, the higher is the
inlet gas temperature the smaller is the droplet diame-
ter (Figure 5). Anyway, gas temperature influence is
not decisive. An increase of 350 K causes, after 1 s, a
difference in diameter reduction of 1 3 1024 m. Conse-
quently, this small diameter variation implies a limited
variation of droplet final velocity and position.
Figures 6a and 6b show the results of the complete
single droplet model for some specific cases (for a
typical value of seawater alkalinity of 2400 lmol/kg
and gas initial temperature of 500 K). SO2 and alka-
line species concentration behavior inside the droplet
are displayed at four different times. In the first stages
of the process, SO2 accumulates at the droplet surface
and reacts with alkaline species; subsequently, the in-
ternal vortex transports SO2 from the external edge to
the droplet core. A gradual depletion of alkaline spe-
cies occurs at the droplet surface and then propa-
gates inside the droplet, except at the vortex core,
where velocities are very low. It is evident that con-
vective transport prevails upon diffusive one. Alkaline
species are continuously supplied from the droplet
core by the convective flux, replacing the depleted
surface layers of water. This process accelerates the
SO2 absorption and reaction. However, at the end of
the calculation time (2 s, corresponding to a typical
residence time of the droplet in a spray column) the
absorption process is still mainly controlled by chemi-
cal reaction, implying that the droplet is still far from
saturation. This result shows that a technical applica-
tion of seawater in SO2 wet scrubbing could take into
account the possibility of recirculating seawater for
several times until saturation is approached.
Figure 7 shows SO2 and alkaline species mass frac-
tion profiles along the droplet radius (at an angular
position corresponding to y 5 25) at three different
times. As already shown in Figure 6, sulfur species
progressively penetrate towards the droplet core,
thanks to internal recirculation. On the other hand,
July 2012 283
Figure 8. (a–c) Captured SO2 versus time. [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at
wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

because of chemical reaction, droplet alkaline content
decreases with time. The hypothesis of fast but not
infinite reaction rate, allows the two reagents to coex-
ist without the presence of a sharp-cut reaction front.
Figures 8a–8c report the SO2 amount (kg)
absorbed by a single droplet versus time for different
values of the droplet initial diameter, seawater initial
alkalinity, and initial SO2 concentration in the exhaust
gas. Gas velocity was found to have a negligible
influence on the model results. Figure 8a shows that
an 1.5 mm initial diameter droplet is able to perform
a much higher absorption than a 1-mm droplet. How-
ever, it must be considered that larger droplet dimen-
sions correspond to a smaller gas–liquid specific con-
tact surface (on an equal water flow rate basis) for
the seawater flow in the scrubber. In Figure 8b, an
increasing absorbed SO2 amount is observed as sea-
water initial alkalinity increases; the case of pure

284 July 2012 Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.31, No.2) DOI 10.1002/ep
Figure 8. (continued) [Color figure can be viewed in the online issue, which is available at wileyonlinelibrary.com.]

water (alkalinity equal to 0) obviously corresponds to
the lowest SO2 absorption. Seawater alkalinity seems
to be one of the most influential parameters on the
absorption process.
Figure 8c shows the SO2 absorption behavior of the
droplet at different values of SO2 concentration in the
flue gas; SO2 concentration was calculated for three dif-
ferent values of sulfur content in the fuel (3, 3.5, and 4%
sulfur mass fraction, corresponding to 640, 744, and 850
ppm SO2 concentration in the flue gas, see Appendix).
A higher SO2 concentration in the flue gas corresponds
to a slightly larger SO2 absorption in the droplet. On the
whole, Figures 8a–8c confirm that at the end of calcula-
tion time saturation is not approached.
Plug-Flow Model
MARPOL establishes that the maximum amount
of emitted SO2 from a marine engine should be 6 g/
kWh. For 3% sulfur content in the fuel (see
Appendix), the maximum outlet SO2 flow rate
should be:
 kg
mSO2 ;MARPOL ¼ 6 3 P ¼ 44:1 (19)
h able in the range 58–103 kg/(kW h) is needed, for a
So, according to MARPOL limits, the minimum
scrubber efficiency should be:
 pler equilibrium assumption used in [4].
m SO2 ;MARPOL
hMARPOL ¼  ¼ 0:56 (20)
mSO2
Plug-flow calculations have been carried out by
imposing this overall scrubber efficiency. In this way,
the minimum seawater flow rate required to obtain this
efficiency could be estimated. Diagrams reported in
Figure 9 represent the seawater flow rate (L/s) needed
to obtain an SO2 capture efficiency equal to hMARPOL,
for different values of the scrubber height. Two differ-
ent values of water alkalinity have been considered.
The results show that a twofold increase of seawater
alkalinity corresponds to almost halved water con-
sumption. Moreover, it is obvious that the higher the
scrubber, the lower is the water flow rate needed.
However, the maximum scrubbing height is limited by
the available space in the ship exhaust chimney.
Andreasen and Mayer [4] also studied SO2 absorption
in marine engine exhaust, using a model based on the
solution of equilibrium equations. They analyzed the
influence of several parameters such as partial pressure
of SO2, seawater temperature, and seawater alkalinity.
These authors found that for a 66% SO2 removal effi-
ciency, and for a fuel containing 4.5% w/w sulfur, a sea-
water supply rate of 40–63 kg/(kW h) is required,
depending on the seawater composition in terms of al-
kalinity. In this study, calculations show that for a 56%
SO2 removal efficiency and for the same alkalinity used
in [4], a required seawater amount (see Figure 9) vari-
scrubber height between 3 and 6 m. This result gives a
more realistic idea about the amount of seawater circu-
lating in a desulfurization plant, with respect to the sim-
CONCLUSIONS
A model for SO2 absorption in seawater droplets is
presented. Using a simple plug-flow approximation, a
first evaluation of using seawater wet scrubbers in

Environmental Progress & Sustainable Energy (Vol.31, No.2) DOI 10.1002/ep July 2012 285
 Kc mass transfer coefficient
kH Henry’s constant
l liquid
LHV low heating value
m mass
M molecular weight
NH2O gas–liquid interface water flux
NP number of droplets
NR grid radial nodes
Nu Nusselt number
P engine power
p pressure
P droplet
Pr Prandlt number
R droplet radius
R real
R* gas constant
RA,B reaction term
Re Reynolds number
s seawater flow
Figure 9. Seawater flow rate versus scubber height Sc Schmidt number
(according to MARPOL efficiency). [Color figure can SC source term
ST stoichiometric
be viewed in the online issue, which is available at surface Surface
wileyonlinelibrary.com.] T temperature
u velocity
V volume
marine applications has been carried out. Results VAP Evaporation
show that natural seawater alkalinity and internal cir- X reverse of volume
culation in the droplet assure an enhanced SO2 x mass fraction
Wr radiative temperature
absorption from the gas-phase. After 2 s, the absorp- CL internal motion field
tion phenomenon is still mostly controlled by chemi- a air–fuel ratio
cal reaction and the residual droplet absorption " emissivity
capacity is still high. This means that recirculating hglob engine global efficiency
hMARPOL scrubber removal efficiency
seawater in a wet scrubber might be a good strategy l Viscosity
to reduce the seawater flow in the system. To comply y,r polar coordinates
with the MARPOL limits for SOx pollution, the q Density
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