Control of so2 from industrial effluents by a spray-cum bubble column scrubber

Control of SO2 from industrial off gases need special attention to keen environment clean. In this study the results of scrubbing of sulfur dioxide gas a spray tower in combination with bubble column using a twin fluid air-assist atomizer has been presented. The removal efficiency is found to be a function of inlet SO2 concentration, the air flow rate and the liquid flow rate. Experimental investigation shows that a very high percentage removal of SO2 from 62.54 to 97.58% can be achieved from a lean air-SO2 mixture (400 to 1200ppm of SO2) without using any additives or pre-treatment. Increase in the efficiency with respect to concentration is mainly due to the increase in the concentration gradient between the liquid and gas phase SO2 concentrations, thus increasing the driving force for more absorption of SO2 into the liquid droplets. The results also indicate that, increase in liquid flow rates increases the SO2 removal efficiency where as increase in the gas flow rate decreases the removal efficiency. The efficiency of the spray column found to increase with increase spray liquid flow rate (8.35 to 33.34 × 10-6 m3 sec-1) and concentration of SO2 gas (400 to 1200ppm). A maximum of almost 99.99% efficiency was observed for 1200 ppm at 3.354 × 10-3 m3 sec-1 gas flow rate and 33.34 × 10-6 m3 sec-1 of spray liquid flow rate. © 2010 Asian Network for Scientific Information.