Chemical Engineering & Processing: Process Intensification 166 (2021) 108478

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Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process

Intensification
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cep

Mass transfer process intensification for SO2 absorption in a

commercial-scale wet flue gas desulfurization scrubber
Jiangyuan Qu a, b, Nana Qi a, b, *, Zhen Li c, Kai Zhang a, b, Pengcheng Wang c, Lifeng Li c
a
Beijing Key Laboratory of Emission Surveillance and Control for Thermal Power Generation, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China
b
Key Laboratory of Power Station Energy Transfer Conversion and System (North China Electric Power University), Ministry of Education, Beijing 102206, China
c
Shanxi Hepo Power Generation Company Limited, Yangquan 045011, Shanxi, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: To intensify SO2 absorption process in wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) spray scrubber, a comprehensive CFD
Coal-fired power unit model coupled transfer process with chemical reactions is established by Eulerian‒Lagrangian method and
Flue gas verified in a commercial-scale device of 330 MW coal-fired power unit. The desulfurization performance is
Desulfurization
significantly affected by both the property of each droplet and the dispersion of droplet swarm, which are
Multiphase flow
Mass transfer
determined by the spray behaviors. Three dominant factors, including droplet diameter, injection direction and
Spray characteristics spray morphology, are explored to optimize the spray conditions for intensifying SO2 absorption process.
Differing from the ideal plug flow, the optimal diameter of droplet in non-ideal flow is obtained by considering
the synergistic effect of the uniformity of gas–slurry distribution and the dynamics of SO2 mass transfer.
Compared with the single-direction spray with downward or upward injection, the dual-direction spray reaches a
great balance between the competitive effects of the uniformity of gas‒slurry flow and the interfacial area for
mass transfer. The influence of spray morphology on mass transfer process is essentially the difference of
dispersion characteristics of droplets in the middle part of scrubber. A design scheme combining full-cone and
hollow-cone nozzles is suggested for improving the overall SO2 removal efficiency.

WFGD unit.
Spray scrubber is the heart of WFGD system where flue gas is
1. Introduction
essentially purified through chemical absorption into slurry droplets
[10]. Overall absorption performance is controlled by both the SO2
Coal combustion from power plants, industrial boilers and furnaces
transfer process from gas to slurry and the chemical reactions in solution
significantly contributes to undesired acidic gasses, trace heavy metals,
[11]. The existed results [5-7,12-15] identified that the hydration and
and particulate matters [1]. As one of the main air pollutants, sulfur
dissociation of sulfurous species could be treated as instantaneous re­
dioxide (SO2) causes a series of environmental problems, such as acid
actions. Accordingly, the species concentrations in solution are mainly
rain and formation of secondary aerosols [2]. The wet flue gas desul­
determined by thermodynamic equilibriums [7,15,16]. For the mass
furization (WFGD) using limestone is considered as the most effective
transfer process, Brogren and Karlsson [14] and Qin et al. [2] concluded
and reliable treatment of SO2 removal for industrial processes [3].
that the transport of SO2 into slurry droplet was largely controlled in
Among the several types of reactors for limestone scrubbing,
liquid side. In actual WFGD scrubber, the pH in slurry phase significantly
counter-current spray scrubber is most utilized in commercial-scale
decreases with the dissolution of sulfurous species. Frandsen et al. [17]
WFGD installations, which provides a large contacting area between
and Li et al. [18] optimized the conditions for acid–base reactions in
flue gas and slurry droplets [4,5]. The SO2 contained in flue gas is
WFGD system by using the additives to maintain a relatively stable pH
absorbed into slurry droplets, then dissolved sulfites are oxidized into
level in slurry phase based on the buffering effect. Besides, various
sulfates in the bottom tank and finally crystalized into gypsum extracted
promising technologies based on multi-field coupling method, such as
from the system [6,7]. With the increasingly stringent regulations for
magnetic field [19], electrified spray [20], and high-gravity rotating
SO2 emission [8,9], it is necessary to improve the desulfurization per­
technology [21], have been suggested to intensify the mass transfer
formance and flexibility under various load conditions for industrial

* Corresponding author at: Beijing Key Laboratory of Emission Surveillance and Control for Thermal Power Generation, North China Electric Power University,
Beijing 102206, China.
E-mail address: qinana2013@ncepu.edu.cn (N. Qi).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cep.2021.108478
Received 8 March 2021; Received in revised form 3 May 2021; Accepted 17 May 2021
Available online 27 May 2021
0255-2701/© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
J. Qu et al.
Nomenclature
AD projected area of droplet, m2
Ad surface area of droplet, m2
CD drag coefficient
CSO2 SO2 molar concentration in slurry, kmol m− 3
cSO2 SO2 mass concentration in flue gas, mg Nm− 3
cd specific heat of droplet, kJ kg− 1 K− 1
D diffusion coefficient, m2 s− 1
dp droplet diameter, m
E enhancement factor
e internal energy per unit mass, kJ kg− 1
→ ρ
F force acting on gas− slurry interface, N
→g acceleration of gravity, m s− 2
H Henry’s constant, Pa m3 kmol− 1
h sensible enthalpy, kJ kg− 1
→
J diffusion flux, kg m− 2 s− 1
K equilibrium constant
Ktot overall mass transfer coefficient, kmol m− 2 s− 1 Pa− 1
keff effective conductivity, W m− 1 K− 1
kg mass transfer coefficient in gas side, kmol m− 2 s− 1 Pa−
kl mass transfer coefficient in liquid side, m s− 1
process in wet scrubber. However, these developing technologies are
still implemented in the special lab- and pilot-scale wet scrubbers.
In a commercial-scale WFGD unit, the flue gas in a radial direction
enters the scrubber whilst the bulk slurry is atomized into fine droplets
commonly by pressure swirl nozzles [22,23]. It should be noted that the
flow pattern of flue gas and slurry droplets always deviates from the
ideal counter-current mode due to either the lateral inlet of raw gas or
the uneven dispersion of slurry, where the flow channeling significantly
reduces the overall SO2 removal efficiency [10,16,24]. Therefore, the
flow structure of two phases is one of key issues to intensify mass
transfer and thus to fulfill the requirement of reactions for industrial
desulfurization process. To improve the uniformity of gas distribution,
Montanes et al. [25] commented the synergistic rings mitigated the
channeling of flue gas around the wall, which could increase the
removal efficiency by about 4%. Chen et al. [26] found the deflectors
around the inlet scrubber efficiently avoided the localized high-speed
gas flow, which leaded to an increment for desulfurization efficiency
of 3% or so. For strengthening the interaction between gas and slurry
phases, great efforts have been devoted to modifying the flow pattern of
two phases by the specific internals occupying the whole cross section of
scrubber, such as sieve tray [24], Venturi rod banks [27,28], flow
pattern controlling unit [8], and groove separator [29]. In this way, the
slurry phase accumulates on the surface of internals, then SO2 absorp­
tion is locally intensified by the interaction between gas and slurry film
or bubbles, rather than gas–droplet contacting mode, whereas the WFGD
scrubber requires high energy consumption and much maintenance cost.
Anyway, slurry droplets are essentially the inherent internals of
scrubber to regulate the flow structure of two phases and to provide the
interfacial area for mass transfer [27,30]. SO2 absorption into droplets
still makes considerable contributions for the whole desulfurization
process. However, the removal efficiency is affected by both the prop­
erty of each droplet and the dispersion behaviors of droplet swarm,
which are largely determined by the operating conditions of nozzles
[23]. Accordingly, the influence of spray characteristics, such as droplet
diameter and injection properties, on mass transfer process should be
concerned to explore the cost-effective approach for improving SO2
absorption performance.
The property of droplet is one of the critical parameters to manipu­
late the transfer behavior between gas and slurry phases [13,27,31]. For
Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 166 (2021) 108478
1
M molecular weight, kg kmol−
md mass of droplet, kg
p static pressure, Pa
T temperature, K
u
→ velocity, m s− 1
V cell volume, m3
Y mass fraction of species
Greek letters
ε turbulence energy dissipation rate, m2 s− 2
η desulfurization efficiency, %
μ dynamic viscosity, kg m− 1 s− 1
density, kg m− 3
σ d− g surface tension of droplet, N m− 1
1 − 2
τ shear stress, kg m− s
Subscripts
d droplet
g gas phase
i ith droplet
k kth species
1
l liquid phase
0 initial value
the ideal counter-current mode of gas‒liquid (or slurry) system, the
droplet with smaller diameter (dp) leads to higher volumetric mass
transfer coefficient resulting from larger interfacial area and higher
liquid-side mass transfer coefficient [5,32,33]. For the non-ideal flow
pattern, however, dp has two competitive effects on the uniformity of gas
flow [30,34]. As expected, the increasing diameter of droplet decrease
the interfacial area for interphase momentum transfer, while the droplet
with large diameter can mitigate the gas channeling largely ascribed to
the high slip velocity between two phases. Focusing on the complicated
hydrodynamics of gas‒liquid flow in the scrubber, Wang and Dai [33]
proposed that the proper sizes of droplets used in multilayer spray
scrubber could enlarge the liquid holdup in the premise of uniform gas
flow. However, the chemical absorption of SO2 should be paid more
consideration for deeply understanding the competitive mechanism
between mass transfer coefficient and two-phase flow pattern depending
on droplet diameter.
The dispersion characteristics of droplet swarm is impacted by the
spray conditions of nozzle, including ejection velocity, spray angle,
discharge direction, and morphology of spray cone. Guo et al. [33]
predicted the wet desulfurization process in a spray tower, which
concluded that increasing injection speed or spray angle resulted in
better mixing degree of two phases and higher desulfurization effi­
ciency. Feng et al. [31] and Sun et al. [35] explored that the spray di­
rection influenced the momentum exchange behavior in gas‒droplet
flow and obtained their optimal parameters to enhance the evaporation
performance of droplets from a single nozzle. For the pressurized swirl
nozzle, the conical spray region is formed due to the action of centrifugal
force. Generally, the morphology of spray cone can be classified into
hollow cone and full cone [35,36]. Michalski [37] pointed out the
hollow-cone nozzle provided better dispersion characteristics than the
full-cone pattern, while Sun et al. [23] thought that the full-cone nozzle
generated uniform coverage in a pilot-scale spray device. Nevertheless,
to the best of our knowledge, only few investigations concerned to the
effect of spray direction and conical shape on the SO2 absorption per­
formances for commercial-scale WFGD scrubber with multi-nozzle
arrangement.
A comprehensive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model in
Eulerian‒Lagrangian framework is established to describe the transport
process of gas‒slurry flow and chemical reactions in slurry droplets
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J. Qu et al. Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 166 (2021) 108478

inside WFGD scrubber, which is verified by the measured data from a Table 1
commercial-scale device with the capacity of 330 MW coal-fired power Chemical equilibriums and balance equations in the chemical reaction model.
unit. Based on the region identification in our previous work [38], the Name Equation No.
aim of this paper is to clarify the influence of three dominant factors,
Chemical KH2 O = [H ]∙[OH ] = exp(140.93− 13445.90/
+ −
(1)
including droplet diameter, injection direction, and spray morphology, equilibrium Td− 22.48lnTd)
on the overall desulfurization performance, which is utilized to explore KSO2,aq = [H+]∙[HSO−3 ]/[SO2,aq] = exp(− 1.96 + 637.40/ (2)
the optimal spray conditions for mass transfer process intensification in Td− 0.015Td)
WFGD scrubber. KHSO3 − = [H+]∙[SO2−
3 ]/[HSO3 ] = exp(− 21.27 +
−
(3)
1333.40/Td)
2. Model description KHSO4 − = [H+]∙[SO2−
4 ]/[HSO4 ] = exp(− 4.49)
−
(4)
KCO2,aq = [H+]∙[HCO−3 ]/[CO2,aq] = exp (5)
The CFD modeling concerns both the chemical reactions in aqueous (235.48− 12,092.10/Td− 36.78lnTd)
phase and the transport characteristics of SO2 from flue gas to slurry KHCO3 − = [H+]∙[CO2−
3 ]/[HCO3 ]= exp (6)
−

droplets within industrial WFGD scrubber. The reactions involved in (220.07− 12,431.70/Td− 35.48lnTd)

slurry bulk are assumed to be at equilibrium instantaneously. Accord­ Mass balance d (7)
([HSO3 − ] + [SO3 2− ] + [SO2,aq ]) = NS(IV)
dt
ingly, the kinetic-controlled steps are neglected, including oxidation of d (8)
([HSO4 − ] + [SO4 2− ]) = 0
sulfite species, dissolution of limestone, and precipitation of gypsum [7, dt
d (9)
13,22]. The transport process of SO2 is simulated by considering the dt
([HCO3 − ] + [CO3 2− ] + [CO2,aq ]) = 0
dynamics of SO2 mass transfer across the gas–slurry interface combined Charge balance 2[Ca2+ ] + 2[Mg2+ ] + [H+ ] = [Cl− ] + [HSO3 − ] + (10)
with the multiphase hydrodynamics, heat transfer, and H2O evaporation 2[SO3 2− ] + [HSO4 − ] + 2[SO4 2− ] + [HCO3 − ] + 2[CO3 2− ] +
in spray scrubber. [OH− ]
Auxiliary system KCaCO3 = [Ca2+ ]⋅[CO3 2− ] (11)
2[Ca2+ ] + 2[Mg2+ ] + [H+ ] = [Cl− ] + [HSO4 − ] + (12)
2.1. Chemical reactions in slurry droplet
2[SO4 2− ] + [HCO3 − ] + 2[CO3 2− ] + [OH− ]

To determine the dissolved constituents in aqueous phase, the re­

action model is established to describe the complex chemical in­ non-linear algebraic system can be referred to our previous work [38].
teractions within droplet. As illustrated in Fig. 1, the sulfite and bisulfite
ions are formed from the dissociation reactions after the hydration of 2.2. Governing equations for gas‒slurry flow
gaseous SO2, which increases the maximum dissolved concentrations of
sulfurous species compared with the physical transfer process [11]. The The interphase transfer process and aqueous phase chemistry are
compositions of sulfate and carbonate species vary with different equi­ simulated by Eulerian–Lagrangian method. In the Eulerian framework,
librium pH values in actual WFGD plant. In addition, some inert anions flue gas is treated as a compressible Newtonian fluid, composed of N2,
and cations, such as Mg2+ and Cl− , are also supposed to affect the O2, CO2, SO2, and H2O vapor. The motion of gas phase is described via
thermodynamic conditions in solution [10,24,39]. Therefore, totally 13 Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations closed by the
dissolved compounds are considered in slurry droplet in the proceeding Realizable k-ε turbulence model, which has been considered suitable for
of SO2 absorption, i.e., H+, OH− , SO2,aq, HSO−3 , SO2− 2−
3 , HSO4 , SO4 , CO2,
−
modeling the turbulence of gas flow in spray scrubber [4,24,31,34]. The
2− 2+ 2+
aq , HCO −
3 , CO 3 , Ca , Mg , and Cl −
. conservations of mass, momentum, energy, and species concentrations
The concentrations of species are taken from the acid–base equilib­ for the continuous phase are given as:
riums, mass balances, and electroneutrality for ions [7,11,15,20,22]. ( )
However, the initial conditions of slurry phase are related to the ther­ ∂ρg
+ ∇⋅ ρg → u g = Smass (13)
modynamic conditions in oxidation tank. Analogous to the approach by ∂t
Marocco and Inzoli [22], the chemical equilibriums for carbonate spe­ ( ) ( )
cies assisted with an auxiliary reaction system are employed to describe ∂
ρ→u g + ∇⋅ ρg →
u g→
ug = − ∇p + ∇⋅τ + ρg →
→
g + S mom (14)
the initial state of slurry in oxidation tank. The auxiliary system is ∂t g
comprised of the equilibrium for limestone dissolution and the charge ( ) ( ∑ →)
balance for dissolved ions. Table 1 lists the thermodynamic equations ∂( )
ρ e + ∇⋅ ρg e→
ug = − pg ∇⋅→
u g + ∇⋅ keff ∇T + τeff ⋅→
ug− hk J k
and pertinent equilibrium constants [5,40]. The closure scheme for this ∂t g
+ Sen
(15)
( )
∂ →
(ρYk ) + ∇⋅ ρg →
u g Yk = ∇⋅ J k + Sk,mass (16)
∂t

where Smass, Smom and Sen are the source terms accounting for the mass-,
momentum-, and energy-transfer between two phases, which are eval­
uated by averaging the contributions from droplets in the control vol­
ume [4,28,41]:
1∑ 1 ∑( )
Smass = − Si,mass = − Si,H2 O + Si,SO2 (17)
V i V i

→ 1 ∑→ 1∑
S mom = − Fi − Si,mass →
u d,i (18)
V i V i

Fig. 1. Schematic of gas–slurry interface and chemical equilibriums in

slurry phase.

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J. Qu et al. Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 166 (2021) 108478

1 ∑→ → 1∑ which is treated as a fitting parameter taken from Brogren and Karlsson

Sen = − F i u d,i − Si,en (19)
V i V i [14] and Warych and Szymanowski [15]. HSO2 is the Henry’s constant
obtained from the correlation of Maurer [40], kSO2 ,g is the mass-transfer
Slurry droplets are treated as the discrete phase. Each droplet is set as coefficient in gas side calculated by the modified Ranz-Marshall corre­
a spherical homogeneous mixture, which is mainly comprised of H2O
lation [44], and k0SO2 ,l is the liquid-side coefficient taken from the surface
and dissolved SO2 (SO2,aq). The motion of slurry phase is calculated by
stretch model [32]:
discrete phase model (DPM) in the Lagrangian framework. All the in­
dividual droplets are represented by a specified number of parcels. Each kSO2 ,g dp RT
Sh = = 2 + 0.6Red 1/2 Sc1/3 (26)
parcel contains several droplets with the same physical and chemical DSO2 ,g
quantities, including diameter, velocity, temperature, and composition
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
of solution [35,41,42]. Due to the small volume fraction of slurry phase √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
8σ d− g
inside WFGD scrubber, the droplets are assumed to be noninteracting to
0
kSO2 ,l
= 0.88 DSO2 ,l (27)
3πmd
trade off the accuracy against computational load [22,37]. Obeying
Newton’s second law of motion, the flow characteristics for an isolated
droplet is tracked by the following equations: 3. CFD simulation for WFGD spray scrubber
( )
d→ud → ρg In this study, the aqueous chemistry and interphase transfer mech­
md = S i,mom + md →g 1− (20)
dt ρd anisms are coupled with the multiphase flow to optimize spray condi­
tions for the desulfurization process in a commercial-scale WFGD
md cd
dTd
= Si,en (21) scrubber. This section focuses on the operational parameters of scrubber
dt and the numerical strategy for CFD simulation.
dmd
= Si,mass (22) 3.1. Simulation configuration
dt

2.3. Closure model for gas‒slurry transfer behaviors
For the fully specified source terms in Eqs. (17)–(19), the closure
models are required for the interphase transfer behaviors. In a WFGD
scrubber, the characteristics of gas–slurry momentum exchange and SO2
mass transfer determine the overall desulfurization performance. Even
though the spray cooling has less impact on SO2 absorption process
compared with the other transport processes [4,25], the consideration
for interphase heat transfer combined with H2O evaporation can provide
more detailed information about the evolution of droplet size [38].
The drag force plays a significant role in the momentum transfer
between flue gas and droplets in spray scrubber [2,4,26,31]. The other
terms contributing to the aerodynamic forces on droplet can be
neglected as suggested by Crowe et al. [41]. The drag force exerted on
individual droplet is formulated as:
⃒ ⃒( ) sure drop for flue gas is modelled through a specific inertial loss term.
1 ⃒
Si,mom = ρg CD ⃒⃒→ug− →
⃒
u d ⃒⃒ →ug− →
u d AD (23)
2 from totally 500 injection sources with the cone angle of 90◦ . The
where CD is the drag coefficient evaluated by the Morsi and Alexander
correlation [43], which has been validated for the wide range of Rey­
nolds number (Red) in spray system [4,35].
During the contact between gas and droplets, as aforementioned, the
kinetic-controlled reactions can be neglected in slurry bulk, e.g., S(IV)
oxidation, CaCO3 dissolution, and CaSO4•2H2O crystallization.
Accordingly, the transport of SO2 into droplet is controlled by the mass
transfer resistance in both gas and liquid sides [2,11,14]. At the gas–­
slurry interface, the phase equilibrium is assumed to be governed by
Henry’s law [12]. The transfer rate of SO2 into a single droplet is
expressed as:
( )
Si,SO2 = KSO2 ,tot PSO2 ,∞ − HSO2 CSO2 ,∞ Ad MSO2 (24)
where PSO2 ,∞ is the partial pressure of SO2 in gas bulk taken from Eq.
(16), CSO2 ,∞ is the SO2 molar concentration in the slurry bulk obtained
from the reaction model in Section 2.1, and KSO2 ,tot is the global mass-
transfer coefficient defined as:
( )− 1
KSO2 ,tot =
1
+
HSO2
(25)
0
kSO2 ,g ESO2 kSO 2 ,l
where ESO2 is the enhancement factor for quantifying the ratio of mass
flux into the droplet with and without reactions in aqueous phase [16],
The WFGD spray scrubber considered is in operation at a 330 MW
coal-fired power unit. The present work focuses on the effect of spray
conditions on desulfurization performance mainly determined by the
contact condition between gas and droplets. Therefore, the oxidation
tank with slurry‒bubble flow pattern is ignored in the computational
domain, which has been widely accepted in the simulation for SO2 ab­
sorption process in spray scrubber [4,22,25-29]. Fig. 2 shows the con­
figurations of equipment and the schematic of grid generation. The
geometrical entity of scrubber is discretized using unstructured cells.
The grid system is refined surrounding the pipelines and synergistic
rings. Table 2 summarises the boundary conditions for continuous and
dispersed phases. For the continuous phase, the raw gas enters the
scrubber from the inlet specified by a mass flow rate, and the purified
gas leaves from the pressure outlet. The mist eliminator with intricate
geometrical structure is simplified as a porous zone, in which the pres­
For the dispersed phase, slurry droplets are released into the flow field
droplets are excluded from further calculation until they encounter the
gas inlet, bottom, or mist eliminator.
Table 3 summarises the operational parameters under the design
condition and their corresponding assignments for boundaries. As to the
initial compositions of slurry phase, the sulphurous species are assumed
to completely convert into S(VI) species and thus the concentrations of S
(IV) species are set as 0 [13,24]. The other initial physical and chemical
properties of slurry phase are the same as the measured data of oxidation
tank. The size distribution of poly-dispersed spray is governed by Ros­
in–Rammler function, which is divided into 10 groups with the discrete
diameters in the range of 0.5 mm to 5 mm. For the direction and
morphology of injections, the original spray configurations in scrubber
can be referred to our previous work [38]. The setups in different cases
for comparison will be illustrated in Section 4 to evaluate the effect of
spray conditions on the performance of scrubber.
3.2. Numerical strategy
The desulfurization process is simulated in a commercial software, in
which the models for chemical reactions and interphase transfer process
are implemented by the user defined subroutines. In the Eulerian
framework, the solution for staggered grid is obtained through pressure‒
velocity coupling method undertaken by segregated SIMPLEC algo­
rithm. The second order upwind scheme is applied to spatially discretize

4
J. Qu et al. Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 166 (2021) 108478

Fig. 2. Configuration of WFGD scrubber and schematic of grid generation.

and flue gas are conducted alternately until the variances of SO2 removal
Table 2
efficiency and pressure drop are lower than 0.1% and 20 Pa,
Boundary conditions for the WFGD spray scrubber.
respectively.
Geometry Boundary condition For the calculation by Eulerian–Lagrangian method, the numerical
Continuous phase (flue gas) uncertainties associate with grid resolution and parcel assumption [42].
Raw gas inlet Mass flow inlet Higher grid resolution generates lower numerical errors and tracking
Purified gas outlet Pressure outlet more parcels facilitates the accurate representation of actual droplet
bottom, pipelines and synergistic rings No-slip wall, adiabatic
Mist eliminator Porous zone
distribution, whereas greater computational loading is required. Ac­
Dispersed phase (slurry droplets) cording to the sensitivity analysis [38], the simulation with 2.4 × 106
Inlet, bottom and mist eliminator Escape tetrahedral cells is adopted, and the parcel number is assigned as 200 for
pipelines and synergistic rings Ideal reflection each nozzle under the slurry flow rate of 48 m3 h− 1.

4. Results and discussion

Table 3
Operating parameters and numerical settings under the design condition. In our previous work [38], three regions in full-scale WFGD scrubber
Parameter Value have been distinguished in terms of the gas–slurry flow patterns and
transfer characteristics, i.e., Gas Inlet Region (GIR), Dominant Absorp­
Continuous phase (flue gas)
Flow rate, Gin 1.25 × 106 Nm3 h− 1 on dry basis tion Region (DAR) and Slurry Dispersed Region (SDR). The desulfur­
Inlet temperature, Tg,in 393 K ization performance of scrubber is mainly dependent on the gas–slurry
Inlet SO2 concentration, cSO2 ,in 5000 mg Nm− 3 on dry basis transfer behaviors in DAR and SDR. This study tries to understand the
Viscosity, μg 1.96 × 10− 5 Pa s influence of droplet size, spray direction and morphology of spray cone
Operating pressure 101,325 Pa on the gas–slurry transfer process in the above three regions and to
Dispersed phase (slurry droplets)
Total flow rate, L 24,000 m3 h− 1
explore the optimal spray parameters for industrial desulfurization
Temperature of injection, Tl,in 323 K process.
Density, ρd 1140 kg m− 3
Solid content 15 wt.%
4.1. Model validation
Droplet diameter distribution Rosin–Rammler; de = 2.5 mm and n = 3.0
pH value 5.5
Concentrations of dissolved species, [Mg2+]0 = 0.17 kmol m− 3 Both the desulfurization efficiency of scrubber and the pressure drop
[X]0 [Cl− ]0 = 0.19 kmol m− 3 of flue gas are selected as the indicators to validate the reliability of CFD
[SO2−
4 ]0 = 0.15 kmol m
− 3
model for multiphase hydrodynamics combined with SO2 absorption
process. The measured data are obtained from the industrial WFGD
the convective nonlinear items in all transport equations. In the scrubber mentioned in Section 3.1, which are compared with predicted
Lagrangian framework, the length scale of 20 mm is specified to results in Table 4. Under the design condition shown in Table 3, the CFD
compute the time step for integrating the ordinary differential equations model evaluates the pressure drop with 5.19% deviation on the indus­
of droplets, i.e., Eqs. (20)–(22). trial data. With the SO2 inlet concentrations in the range of about 3800
Two-way coupling method is implemented to simulate the transfer mg Nm− 3 to 6400 mg Nm− 3, the deviations of simulated SO2 removal
process between flue gas and slurry droplets [31,41]. Firstly, the performances are lower than 1% compared with the measured data.
finite-difference equations of flue gas are individually solved in the Therefore, the CFD model in Section 2 can satisfactorily describe the
Eulerian framework without slurry droplets. Using this flow field, the desulfurization process in a commercial-scale WFGD scrubber.
physical properties of representative parcels are calculated in each time
step by integrating Eqs. (20)–(22) in Lagrangian framework. After the 4.2. Effect of droplet diameter
evaluation of source terms in Eqs. (17)–(19), the concentrations of dis­
solved species in slurry phase can be taken from the reaction model in Fig. 3 qualitatively illustrates the influence of droplet diameter (dp)
Section 2.1, meanwhile the gas flow field is solved again to update the on the desulfurization performance with non-ideal flow pattern. On the
interactions between two phases. Then the iterations for slurry droplets one hand, both interfacial area for momentum exchange (AD) and
volumetric mass transfer coefficient (KTotAd) increase with an increasing

5
J. Qu et al.
Table 4
Comparison between simulated and measured data of desulfurization efficiency η and pressure drop ΔP (Gin = 1,246,212 Nm3 h− 1, L/G = 19.25 L Nm− 3).
3
Item η/% with different cSO2 ,in /mg Nm−
c1 = 3819.6 c2 = 4201.6 c3 = 4552.5
Simulation 98.89 98.66 98.49
Measurement 98.26 97.80 97.68
Error 0.63 0.86 0.81
Fig. 3. Desulfurization efficiency depending on uniformity of gas flow and
dynamics of SO2 mass transfer with respect to droplet diameter.
dp, which is positive for the uniformity of gas flow and the absorption
rate of SO2 [5,13]. On the other hand, the decrease of dp reduces the
terminal velocity of droplet (uT) according to Eq. (28) derived from Eqs.
(20) and (23) [5]. When droplets fall in the force-balanced state, the
decline of uT decreases the slip velocity between two phases (|→
ug − →u d |)
and thus reduces the source term related to momentum transfer in Eq.
(23), which is negative for mitigating the undesired high velocity of gas
channelling [33,34,37]. Accordingly, there exists an optimal dp to ach­
ieve the best desulfurization performance with non-ideal flow pattern in
WFGD scrubber.
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
( )
4gdp ρs
uT = − 1 (28)
3CD ρg
To clarify the competitive effects of dp on gas–slurry flow pattern and
SO2 transfer characteristics, the performance of industrial WFGD
scrubber is compared with its corresponding ideal plug flow operating as
the counter-current mode with a uniform size distribution of droplets.
Fig. 4 shows the plug flow pattern in a spray column. Herein the uniform
profile of gas velocity is specified for the inlet of flue gas at the bottom.
The slurry droplets are evenly injected from 4 planes with the same
heights as the configurations of scrubber in Fig. 2. Following the cor­
relation of Morsi and Alexander [43], the critical diameter of droplet
(dcrit) is evaluated as 0.63 mm, which matches with the entrainment
criterion in the gas flow at the superficial gas velocity of 3.04 m s− 1 and
temperature of 323 K. The droplet diameters ranging from 1 mm to 4
mm are considered in this section. The other initial and boundary con­
ditions are the same as those listed in Tables 2 and 3.
Under the plug flow condition, the majority of droplets immediately
achieve the force-balanced state resulting in the stable slurry distribu­
tion as shown in Fig. 5. In this stable state, the terminal velocity of
droplet (uT) increases from 4.48 m s− 1 to 11.79 m s− 1 by rising dp from 1
mm to 4 mm according to Eq. (28). As expected, the increase of droplet
diameter contributes to a higher falling velocity of droplet in the force-
balanced state, which decreases the slurry concentration.
In the industrial WFGD scrubber with non-ideal flow pattern, Fig. 6
6
Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 166 (2021) 108478
ΔP/Pa
c4 = 5112.8 c5 = 5699.8 c6 = 6394.5
98.40 98.10 97.76 1357
97.61 97.42 96.86 1290
0.79 0.68 0.90 67
Fig. 4. Schematic of spray column with plug flow pattern.
displays the area with the slurry concentration of 0 kg m− 3 in GIR is
reduced by increasing dp from 2 mm to 4 mm, mainly because the
droplets with stronger inertia detach from the path of raw gas. It can be
found that these cases present the similar evolution of two-phase hy­
drodynamic structure, where the gas flow in a lateral direction gradually
turns to upward in DAR and thus the flow pattern progressively ap­
proaches to the ideal counter-current mode in Fig. 5. For the slurry
droplets with diameter of 1 mm, a certain number of droplets are still
entrained by flue gas channelling with extremely high velocity, even
though their diameters are higher than the critical value of 0.63 mm
correlated by Morsi and Alexander [43]. The distribution of gas–slurry
flow for the droplets with diameter of 1 mm is quite different from the
other three cases, where the two-phase flow pattern is locally trans­
formed from the counter-current mode into co-current mode in DAR.
Accordingly, the diameter of droplet should be greater than 2 mm for
maintaining a desired flow pattern in the present WFGD scrubber.
To further explore the influence of dp on the interphase momentum
transfer in three regions, the relative standard deviation of gas velocity
(RSDg) is employed to characterize the uniformity for flue gas. Fig. 7(a)
exhibits the cross-sectional profiles of RSDg along the height of scrubber.
As mentioned in Fig. 3, the droplet with larger diameter (dp) generates
higher slip velocity between two phases (|→ ug− → u d |) but lower interfa­
cial area for momentum exchange (AD), which has an opposite effect on
the uniformity of gas flow [30,34]. Generally, the uniformity of gas flow
for dp = 1 mm reaches a stable state until the gas traverses SDR, rather
than DAR in the other three cases, mainly due to the maldistribution of
gas–slurry flow as shown in Fig. 6. When dp increases from 1 mm to 2
mm, RSDg decreases in the whole scrubber indicating that the summa­
tion of interphase drag force per unit volume of flue gas is largely
controlled by |→ug− → u d |. When dp further increases from 2 mm to 4 mm
the uniformity degree of flue gas is improved in both GIR and DAR.
However, the reduction of RSDg is less evident with increasing dp. This
reveals that AD becomes more significant in the uniformity of gas dis­
tribution. As to the influence of dp on mass transfer behavior, Fig. 7(b)
presents the SO2 concentration gradients with different droplet di­
ameters along the height of scrubber. With the diameter of 1 mm, a
J. Qu et al. Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 166 (2021) 108478

Fig. 5. Distributions of slurry phase in plug flow with different droplet diameters (L/G = 19.25 L Nm− 3, ug,ave = 3.04 m s− 1).

Fig. 6. Distributions of slurry concentration and vector field of flue gas in non-ideal flow with different droplet diameters (L/G = 19.25 L Nm− 3, ug,ave = 3.04 m s− 1).

Furthermore, the transfer rate of SO2 increases with decreasing dp from

2 mm to 4 mm largely because smaller dp causes higher KTotAd in this
region.
With the superficial gas velocity of 3.04 m s− 1 and the ratio of liquid
to gas ratios (L/G) ranging from 16.04 L Nm− 3 to 22.46 L Nm− 3, Fig. 8
illustrates the desulfurization performances of scrubbers with different
flow patterns. In general, SO2 removal efficiency monotonically in­
creases in either plug flow or non-ideal flow pattern by decreasing dp

Fig. 7. Profiles of (a) uniformity degree for flue gas and (b) SO2 concentration
gradient along the height of scrubber with different droplet diameters (Gin =
1,246,212 Nm3 h− 1, L/G = 19.25 L Nm− 3, cSO2 ,in = 5000 mg Nm− 3).

lower absorption rate appears in DAR while a higher value in SDR

because the counter-current mode is restored in SDR, which is negative
for the overall contacting time of two phases in the whole scrubber.
Nevertheless, the profiles of SO2 concentration gradient for dp ranging
from 2 mm to 4 mm are similar to that under the design condition
Fig. 8. Effect of droplet diameter on desulfurization performances in plug flow
summarized in Table 3, which identifies the desulfurization process and non-ideal flow patterns (Gin = 1,246,212 Nm3 h− 1, cSO2 ,in = 5000
mainly occurs in DAR as mentioned in our previous work [38]. mg Nm− 3).

7
J. Qu et al.
from 4 mm to 2 mm, though the deviation of η between two patterns
increases because of the slightly deteriorated uniformity of flue gas in
Fig. 7(a). It demonstrates that the overall absorption performance of
actual scrubber mostly depends on the dynamics of mass transfer related
to KTotAd for dp ranging from 4 mm to 2 mm. When dp further declines
from 2 mm to 1 mm, the desulfurization efficiency asymptotically ap­
proaches to about 100% in the plug flow, which is consistent with
Neveux et al. [5]. However, the corresponding value of η with non-ideal
flow condition declines with reducing dp since the flow pattern of two
phases gradually deviates from the ideal counter-current mode. It can be
inferred that the two-phase flow structure is crucial to the overall
desulfurization performance of industrial scrubber operating with dp
from 2 mm to 1 mm. Taking the above two competitive effects into
consideration, the optimal diameter of droplet is 2 mm for the selected
conditions in the commercial WFGD scrubber, which can be obtained by
designing nozzle structure and adjusting atomization pressure.
4.3. Effect of spray direction
The spray direction of nozzle manipulates both the residence time
distribution of droplets and the flow pattern of two phases [31,35]. For
industrial desulfurization process, a lot of works [2,11,22,24‒30]
focused on the nozzles with downward injection in the spray scrubbers.
As listed in Table 5, three kinds of spray modes, i.e., downward direc­
tion, upward direction and dual direction, are compared to investigate
the influence of spray direction on SO2 absorption performance.
Considering that the upward injections in Groups 1 and 2 can directly
impinge the pipelines or synergistic rings in Fig. 2, it is impractical to
rigorously evaluate the difference of transfer behaviors between upward
and downward sprays configured in these two groups. To ensure the
comparability, the nozzles in Groups 1 and 2 are fixed as downward
injection mode. Different spray directions of nozzles in Group 3 are
compared as below.
Fig. 9 shows the distributions of slurry concentration with three
spray directions under the operational conditions listed in Table 3. In
Case A with downward spray mode, the slurry phase presents better
dispersion performance below the spray layers compared with that in
the other two cases. It should be noted that the upward injection in Case
B is most likely to be intervened by the pipelines leading to the mal­
distribution of gas flow with higher velocity, however, this spray mode
could produce a higher slurry concentration above each spray layer and
obtain better spatial distribution in the whole scrubber compared with
downward injection mode in Case A.
Fig. 10 presents the quantitative result about the distributions of flue
Table 5
Three cases for comparing the spray directions of nozzles.
Case Case A
Nozzle configuration Orifice type / spray direction
Single/down
Group 1
Single/down
Group 2
Single/down
Group 3
Note: bold items indicate the differences among three cases.
8
Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 166 (2021) 108478
gas and slurry in three regions. For the gas distribution in Fig. 10(a), the
obvious difference of RSDg presents in DAR among three cases, where
the uniformity degree of flue gas can be improved by decreasing the
ratio of upward slurry flow rate to overall flow rate (Lup/L). In contrast
to RSDg evolution, the significant difference of slurry concentration in
Fig. 10(b) mainly exhibits in SDR, where the increase of Lup/L leads to
higher slurry concentration related to the gas‒slurry contacting time.
Fig. 11 provides the averaged residence time of droplets (τd) with respect
to droplet diameter. Compared with Case A (Lup/L = 0), the residence
time of slurry phase in Case B with Lup/L = 1.0 increases by 25.99% to
35.56% at the superficial gas velocity of 3.04 m s− 1 and the slurry flow
rate of 24,000 m3 h− 1.
According to the above discussion on hydrodynamics, the influence
of spray direction on SO2 transfer behavior is determined by the
competitive effects of uniformity of gas flow and concentration of slurry
phase. On the one hand, the downward injection effectively modifies the
gas flow due to the uniform distribution of slurry in DAR, which plays a
promotional role for SO2 absorption in a large cross section [10,26,27].
For this reason, the average SO2 concentration declines more rapidly in
DAR for Case A than the other two cases as shown in Fig. 12(a). Agreed
with Eq. (24), on the other hand, the upward injection of Case B enlarges
the gas–slurry interfacial area (Ad) accounted for higher slurry concen­
tration in SDR, which is beneficial to increasing the SO2 transfer rate.
Consequently, the scrubber in Case B with Lup/L = 1.0 has the best ab­
sorption performance in SDR as shown in Fig. 12(b).
Fig. 13 displays pressure drops (ΔP) and desulfurization efficiencies
(η) for three cases. In general, the simulated ΔP increases almost in a
linear relationship with L/G agreed with the experiments of Chen et al.
[8], and the predicted η asymptotically increases with the increase of
L/G confirmed by Qin et al. [2]. The comparison of ΔP suggests that
increasing Lup/L requires more energy consumption for flue gas attrib­
uted to higher interfacial area according to Eq. (23). As to transfer
behavior of SO2, desulfurization performance is influenced by both
gas–slurry dispersion in DAR and slurry concentration in SDR. The
improved flow rate of upward injections decreases the uniformity de­
gree of gas–slurry dispersion in DAR but increases the slurry concen­
tration in SDR. The downward spray mode in Case A causes a poor
absorption performance especially at a low flow rate of slurry, while the
dual-direction spray in Case C results in obvious increment of η by
comparing to Case A. The main reason is that the increase of slurry
concentration in SDR related to the residence time of droplet effectively
improve the overall desulfurization efficiency. However, with the
further the increase of upward flow rate in Case B results in a slight
decrease of η by comparing to Cases C especially at a large flow rate of
Case B Case C
Single/down Single/down
Single/down Single/down
Single/up Dual/down & up
J. Qu et al.
Fig. 9. Distributions of slurry concentration in xz plane and gas axial velocity at z = 6.5 and 9.75 m with different spray directions (Gin = 1,246,212 Nm3 h− 1, L/G =
19.25 L Nm− 3).
Fig. 10. Profiles of (a) uniformity degree of flue gas and (b) slurry concen­
tration along the height of scrubber with different spray directions (Gin =
1,246,212 Nm3 h− 1, L/G = 19.25 L Nm− 3).
Fig. 11. Averaged residence time of droplets with different spray directions
(Dashed line: fitting curve, ug,ave = 3.04 m s− 1, L = 24,000 m3 h− 1).
slurry because the controlling factor for η gradually converts to the
uniformity degree of slurry distribution in DAR. Overall, the
dual-direction spray mode in Cases C is more effective for different
slurry flow rates, which is beneficial to the stable operation of WFGD
scrubber to meet with the fluctuation of SO2 inlet concentration.
9
Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 166 (2021) 108478
Fig. 12. Profiles of average SO2 concentration in (a) Dominant Absorption
Region and (b) Slurry Dispersed Region with different spray directions (Gin =
1,246,212 Nm3 h− 1, L/G = 19.25 L Nm− 3, cSO2 ,in = 5000 mg Nm− 3).
4.4. Effect of spray morphology
As listed in Table 6, three kinds of nozzle arrangement schemes with
different conical shapes are considered to investigate the influence of
spray morphology on interphase transfer process. Taking the above Case
C using hollow-cone nozzles as the base case, Case D selects full-cone
nozzles, and Case E operates in a combination mode consisted of the
full-cone nozzles near the wall and the hollow-cone nozzles in the rest
area. It should be noted that hollow-cone spray is supposed to produce
finer droplet compared with full-cone nozzle [34,39]. In order to explore
the dependence of SO2 absorption performance on slurry dispersion
characteristics, the simulations for three cases in Table 6 are conducted
with the same initial size distribution of droplets to ensure the
comparability.
Figs. 14 exhibits the distribution of droplets in the cross section of z
= 9.0 m, which locates below the spray layers. The hollow-cone nozzles
produce better dispersion characteristics in the core area of scrubber
attributed to circumferential slurry distribution. However, the compar­
ison between Cases C and E elucidates that the full-cone morphology has
better dispersion performance surrounding the wall because the full-
cone spray could generate the uniform coverage below the nozzle
[23]. Moreover, there are no substantial changes in the distribution of
slurry droplets with the proceeding of falling process, e.g., the plane of z
= 6.5 m in Fig. 15.
Fig. 16 presents the uniformity degree of gas flow and slurry con­
centration in three regions. The profiles of RSD for gas and slurry are
more similar in SDR, while an obvious difference is found in DAR. In
J. Qu et al. Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 166 (2021) 108478

Fig. 13. Effect of spray direction on (a) pressure drop and (b) desulfurization efficiency of scrubber (Dashed line: fitting curve, Gin = 1,246,212 Nm3 h− 1, cSO2 ,in =
5000 mg Nm− 3).

Table 6
Three cases for comparing the spray morphologies of nozzles.

Case Case C Case D Case E

Nozzle configuration Morphology of spray cone

Group 1 Hollow cone Full cone Hollow cone

Hollow cone Full cone Full cone

Group 2
Hollow cone Full cone Hollow cone
Group 3

Note: bold items indicate the differences with Case C.

Fig. 14. Distributions of droplets in the typical plane below spray layers (z = 9.0 m) with different morphologies of spray cone.

detail, the hollow-cone nozzles in Case C are prone to generate more
uniform dispersion of two phases in DAR compared with the full-cone
ones in Case D. As shown in Fig. 17, the gas flow with high velocity in
Case D could be mitigated in Case C owing to the better modification
performance originating from more uniform droplet swarm. Moreover,
the appropriate combination mode of nozzles in Case E could further
promote the uniformity degree of gas–slurry flow in DAR by comparing
with Case C due to the maldistribution of two phases is alleviated near
the wall by full-cone nozzles. In fact, the influence of spray morphology
on multiphase hydrodynamics is essentially the difference in dispersion
characteristics of slurry droplets in DAR. For the mass transfer process,
the slurry distribution becomes the critical factor for determining SO2
transfer rate. As shown in Fig. 18, the better dispersion performance of
slurry droplet in Case D leads to the lower SO2 concentrations in both

10
J. Qu et al. Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 166 (2021) 108478

Fig. 15. Distributions of droplets in the typical plane above gas inlet (z = 6.5 m) with different morphologies of spray cone.

performance of scrubber. However, the hollow-cone nozzles installed in

the central area of scrubber (Groups 1 and 3) results in higher desul­
furization efficiency than full-cone nozzles. According to above discus­
sions, the appropriate combination mode of nozzles in Case E is optimal
for the WFGD scrubber, which improves the removal efficiency by about
0.17% to 1.12% compared with the other two cases.

5. Conclusions

Based on the model validation by the measured data from a WFGD

scrubber of 330 MW coal-fired power unit, the influence of droplet

Fig. 16. Profiles of uniformity degree for (a) flue gas and (b) slurry concen­
tration along the height of scrubber with different morphologies of spray cone
(Gin = 1,246,212 Nm3 h− 1, L/G = 19.25 L Nm− 3).

DAR and SDR than other two cases.

Fig. 19 compares the pressure drops (ΔP) and desulfurization effi­
ciencies (η) of scrubber with different spray morphologies. The full-cone
nozzles in Case D causes lower desulfurization efficiency and energy
consumption in comparison to the hollow-cone nozzles in Case C, and
the gaps of η and ΔP between two cases declines with the increase of L/
G. The combination of full-cone and hollow-cone nozzles in Case E
presents the best SO2 absorption performance, and the increment of η
compared with Case C is more evident at a large slurry flow rate. It can Fig. 18. Profiles of average SO2 concentration in (a) Dominant Absorption
be inferred that full-cone spray mode is optimal for the nozzles sur­ Region and (b) Slurry Dispersed Region with different morphologies of spray
rounding the wall (Group 2) to improve the overall absorption cone (Gin = 1,246,212 Nm3 h− 1, L/G = 19.25 L Nm− 3, cSO2 ,in = 5000 mg Nm− 3).

Fig. 17. Distributions of gas axial velocity in the plane of z = 9.0 m with different morphologies of spray cone (ug,ave = 3.04 m s− 1).

11
J. Qu et al.
Fig. 19. Effect of spray morphology on (a) pressure drop and (b) desulfurization efficiency of scrubber (Dashed line: fitting curve, Gin = 1,246,212 Nm3 h− 1, cSO2 ,in =
5000 mg Nm− 3).
diameter, spray injection, and spray morphology on desulfurization ef­
ficiency is investigated to intensify the mass transfer process for SO2
absorption in spray scrubber, which can be summarized as:
(1) In the industrial WFGD scrubber, increasing diameter of droplet
improves the uniformity of gas–slurry flow but decreases the
volumetric mass transfer coefficient. When the superficial gas
velocity is 3.04 m s− 1, the overall desulfurization performance is
limited by the maldistribution gas–slurry flow with the droplet
diameter ranging from 1 mm to 2 mm, whilst it is dominated by
the dynamics of SO2 mass transfer for the diameters higher than
2 mm. The optimal diameter of droplet is 2 mm for the selected
condition in the commercial-scale WFGD scrubber by considering
the synergy of two competitive effects.
(2) The spray direction of nozzle has a synergistic effect on the
residence time of droplets and the flow pattern of two phases, and
further manipulates the overall SO2 absorption efficiency in
different regions of spray scrubber. Upward injection promotes
the uniformity of gas–slurry distribution in the middle part of
scrubber (Dominant Absorption Region, DAR), while downward
injection produces higher slurry concentration in the upper part
of scrubber (Slurry Dispersed Region, DAR). Compared with the
single-direction injection, the scrubber arraying dual-direction
spray has better desulfurization performance under various
slurry flow rates, which enable to meet with the fluctuation of
SO2 inlet concentration.
(3) Spray morphology influences the dispersion of slurry droplets in
DAR, which essentially determines the overall absorption per­
formance of scrubber. The full-cone nozzles surrounding the wall
could mitigate the local maldistribution of gas flow ascribed to
the uniform slurry distribution below the nozzle. However, the
hollow-cone injections in the core area of scrubber provide better
dispersion performance in large cross sections of industrial
apparatus. The appropriate combination mode of hollow-cone
and full-cone nozzles optimizes the gas‒slurry contacting condi­
tions, which leads to higher desulfurization efficiency compared
with the arrangement scheme with identical spray morphology.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Jiangyuan Qu: Conceptualization, Data curtion, Software, Writing –
original draft. Nana Qi: Methodology, Project administration, Writing –
review & editing. Zhen Li: Supervision, Resources, Project administra­
tion. Kai Zhang: Supervision, Conceptualization, Writing – review &
editing. Pengcheng Wang: Investigation, Resources. Lifeng Li: Inves­
tigation, Resources.
12
Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification 166 (2021) 108478
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (51706070), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the
Central Universities (2020MS008 and 2020MS078).
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