OCE551 Air Pollution and Control Engineering Course material

Unit-4
Control of Gaseous Contaminants

Gas contaminants
• Carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide: Carbon oxides are one of the largest groups of
pollutants, causing widespread global harm
• Sulphur dioxide
• Nitrogen oxide
• Hydrocarbons
• Smog
• Chlorofluorocarbons
• Radon
Control techniques
• Absorption
• Adsorption
• Condensation
• Incineration
• Biofilters
Absorption
In chemistry, absorption is a physical or chemical phenomenon or a process in which
atoms, molecules or ions enter some bulk phase – liquid or solid material.
Process
• When a waste gas containing some gaseous pollutants is brought into direct contact
with a liquid, some of the pollutants may get transferred to the liquid.
• This transfer process may occur either due to solubilisation of the pollutants in the
liquid or due to chemical reactions of the pollutants with the liquid or with some
chemical (s) present in the liquid.
• The transfer process without any chemical reaction is termed as physical absorption
and that with chemical reaction(s) is termed as absorption accompanied by chemical
reaction.
• In the (physical) absorption process the solute (gaseous pollutant) is termed as
absorbate and the solvent (liquid) as the absorbent.
• The gas carrying the absorbate is referred to as the carrier gas.
• Physical absorption is reversible under certain conditions and absorption with
chemical reactions are irreversible.
Absorption theory
• Transfer of a chemical species between a gas phase and a liquid phase takes place
because of a potential difference of the species between the phases.
• This potential difference is referred to as the chemical potential gradient.
• When the chemical potential of a species becomes same in the two phases in
contact with one another they are said to be in equilibrium.

1
R. Lakshmipathy, Ph.D, Faculty of Chemistry
OCE551 Air Pollution and Control Engineering Course material

• Under this condition, no net transfer of the species takes place between the phases.
• When the phases are not in equilibrium with respect to a species, then its transfer
occurs from the phase in which its chemical potential is higher to the other phase in
which its potential is lower.
Absorption equipment
• The purpose of an absorption equipment is to bring a gas stream and a liquid stream
into intimate contact with one another so that a solute (a gaseous pollutant) may get
easily transferred from the gas phase to the liquid phase.
• It should be noted here that by this process a pollutant is merely transferred from a
gas phase to a liquid phase only and it is not converted into an innocuous substance.
• If it is desired to recover the solute because of its economic value, then it is to be
desorbed subsequently from the solution.
Types of equipment
• Packed tower,
• Plate tower,
• Spray chamber and
• Venturi scrubber
Of these the most often used equipment is a packed tower, which is quite efficient and
relatively less costly.

Packed tower scrubber

Working
• Packed Tower Gas Scrubbers are low-energy gas scrubbers.
• They are used for gas absorption, cooling, and recovery.
• The scrubbing liquid enters the tower through a nozzle and is sprayed uniformly
across the top of a packed bed so that it trickles evenly through the packing material
from top to bottom without channelling.
• Gas enters the tower through the inlet near the bottom and passes through the
support plate into the packed bed, counter current to the flow of the scrubbing
liquid, contaminants are removed.
• After passing through the packed bed, the cleaned gas passes through a mist
eliminator section near the top of the tower.
• Here, any entrained liquid is removed before the clean air is discharged through the
outlet.

2
R. Lakshmipathy, Ph.D, Faculty of Chemistry
OCE551 Air Pollution and Control Engineering Course material

Advantages
• Remove most of the common gas contaminants
• Very high efficiencies (up to and beyond 99%)
• Low pressure losses
Applications
• Chlorine and HCI removal.
• Water soluble VOC scrubbing.
• Ammonia removal.
• SO2 and/or H2S removal.
Plate tower column
Working
• The plate tower scrubber consists of hollow shell which is divided laterally by a
number of perforated plates.
• The operation is counter-current, with the scrubbing liquid being introduced onto
the plate.
• The gas passing through the holes intermixes with the liquid layer, and it is in this
highly turbulent zone that dust collection occurs.
• The purpose of these trays is to increase the amount of contact area between the
liquid and vapor phases.

3
R. Lakshmipathy, Ph.D, Faculty of Chemistry
OCE551 Air Pollution and Control Engineering Course material

Advantages
• Their fundamentals are well established, entailing low risk.
• The trays are low in cost relative to many other types of trays.
• They can easily handle wide variations in flow rates.
• They are lighter in weight. It is easier and cheaper to install.
• Pressure drop is low as compared to bubble cap trays.
• Peak efficiency is generally high.
• Maintenance cost is reduced due to the ease of cleaning.
Spray Tower
Working
• A spray tower is gas-liquid contactor used to achieve mass and heat transfer
between a continuous gas phase (that can contain dispersed solid particles) and
a dispersed liquid phase.
• It consists of an empty cylindrical vessel made of steel or plastic, and nozzles that
spray liquid into the vessel.
• The inlet gas stream usually enters at the bottom of the tower and moves upward,
while the liquid is sprayed downward from one or more levels.
• This flow of inlet gas and liquid in opposite directions is called countercurrent flow.
• Many nozzles are placed across the tower at different heights to spray all of the gas
as it moves up through the tower.
• The reason for using many nozzles is to maximize the number of fine droplets
impacting the pollutant particles and to provide a large surface area
for absorbing gas.
• The nozzles produce droplets that are usually 500–1000 µm in diameter.

4
R. Lakshmipathy, Ph.D, Faculty of Chemistry
OCE551 Air Pollution and Control Engineering Course material

Advantages
• They are simple and open design
• No internal parts except nozzles
Disadvantages
• Scale and plugging problems in nozzles

Adsorption
• Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms, ions or molecules from a gas, liquid or dissolved
solid to a surface.
• This process creates a film of the adsorbate on the surface of the adsorbent.

5
R. Lakshmipathy, Ph.D, Faculty of Chemistry
OCE551 Air Pollution and Control Engineering Course material

• The adsorption process can be both a physical and chemical process.

• In physical adsorption, the adsorbate molecules (the contaminate) adhere to the
adsorbent materials in a physical bonding force referred to as “van der Waals
forces”.
• In chemical adsorption, a chemical bond is created between the adsorbate and
adsorbent.
• This bond is referred to as “chemisorption.”
• Chemisorption usually occurs at elevated temperatures when energy is necessary to
break chemical bonds.
• The most common adsorbents used in industry are activated carbon, silica gel,
activated alumina (alumina oxide), and zeolite.
Packed bed adsorption column
Working
• The contaminated gas enters the fixed bed vessel at the side.
• The adsorbent material (consider this to be activated carbon) is contained in a
packed bed arrangement that allows for as much exposed surface area as possible.
• The polluted air enters the activated carbon packing and works towards the center,
where there is an exhaust distributor.
• The exhausted air exits the fixed bed adsorber clean of pollutants or contaminates.
• Once the adsorbent is fully saturated with adsorbate (leading to breakthrough), the
system requires change-out of the spent materials with new materials.

6
R. Lakshmipathy, Ph.D, Faculty of Chemistry
OCE551 Air Pollution and Control Engineering Course material

Advantages
• Simple design
• Low cost and economical
• Easy operations

Condenser scrubber
Working
• The gas stream is cooled with a cooling medium (cold wall in a heat exchanger or a
liquid).
• The reduction in temperature lowers the vapour pressure of pollutants in the gas
stream.
• If the vapour pressure drops below the partial pressure of the pollutant, the
substance will condense into mist or droplets.
• The mist or droplets must later be separated using a mist or droplet separator.
• During the condensation of water, pollutants that are soluble in water (acids,
alcohols, ammonia…) will partly dissolve in the condensate.
• This may cause strong odour reductions to be realised.

Direct Condenser
Working
• In the direct condenser, there is direct contact between gases and the cooling
medium.
• This provides very good heat transfer.
• This condenser is normally set up as a spraying chamber.
• It is primarily suited to gas streams that pollute classic heat exchangers, for example,
if sticky or dust-laden streams are concerned.

7
R. Lakshmipathy, Ph.D, Faculty of Chemistry
OCE551 Air Pollution and Control Engineering Course material

• Along with the to-be-condensed

product, soluble substances
and part of the dust will also be
collected.

Indirect condenser
• In indirect condensers, the to-be-treated air is passed through a liquid-gas heat
exchanger.
• The cooling medium is thus separated from the to-be-treated gas stream.
• This has two main advantages:
– No pollution of the cooling medium
– During the condensation of solvents, a separation stage is not needed to
separate the solvent from the cooling medium.

8
R. Lakshmipathy, Ph.D, Faculty of Chemistry
OCE551 Air Pollution and Control Engineering Course material

Bio-filters
Working
• In a biofilter the to-be-cleaned gas stream is passed upwards through a filter bed,
which has been constructed of biological material, for example, compost, tree bark
or peat.
• The filter material carries a thin film of water which is home to micro-organisms.
• The pollutants in the gas stream are retained in the filter material via adsorption and
absorption, and are then decomposed by the present micro-organisms.
• The filter material serves as a supplier of necessary nutrients.
• The degradation products for conversion are carbon dioxide, sulphate, nitrate etc.
• Microbes’ life cycle –they breed, feed, eat, die.
• Their diet is based primarily on carbon-based compounds, water, oxygen (for
aerobic reactions) and macronutrients.

Advantages
• The main residues in a biofilter water, carbon dioxide and biomass. The biomass
remains in the filter matrix and is going to be composted together with it after some
years of use.
• Biofiltration has a very high odor and VOC removal efficiency.

9
R. Lakshmipathy, Ph.D, Faculty of Chemistry
OCE551 Air Pollution and Control Engineering Course material

• The biofiltration process results in a complete decomposition of the pollutants,

creating no hazardous byproducts.
• Biofilters have low investment and operation costs.
Disadvantages
• Large surface area needed (this can be resolved by placing the container biofilters on
top of each other so that the surface area is reduced; though this does increase the
cost aspects)
• The filter material must be periodically replaced—
• It is difficult to check the humidity and pH of the filter material—
• Few configuration parameters to improve efficiency
• Risk of blockage due to dust
• Fluctuations in concentration have a big influence on efficiency
• The bed must be continuously aerated to avoid anaerobic conditions.

10
R. Lakshmipathy, Ph.D, Faculty of Chemistry