What is Wet Scrubber?

Wet Scrubbers are the pollution control equipment that helps in controlling the pollution by reducing the concentration of pollutants such as Sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and ash content in exhaust flue gases.
As the pollution norms are getting stringent and the government is making sure that pollution laws are being implemented, many industries are coming up with various solutions and strategies for reducing the pollution and its management. One such solution is using pollution control equipment such as Wet Scrubbers.

Industries or power plants generally have boilers or furnaces installed in their processes where combustion of fuel is taking place. Combustion of fuel generates flue gases that contain a large amount of heat which is transferred to water to convert into steam. These fuels generally contain carbon, sulfur, hydrogen, oxygen and on combustion with air, they form flue gases containing Sulfur dioxide (SO₂), Carbon dioxide (CO₂), Ash, Water vapor (H₂O). Out of these SO₂ and Ash are the main pollutants that are responsible for Air pollution and must be treated before the flue gases are vented out of the combustion chamber.

Wet Scrubbers are the pollutant treatment equipment in which flue gases containing Sulfur Dioxide (SO₂) and Ash are allowed to bring in contact with the water by either allowing the parallel flow or counter flow. Before allowing the contact between flue gases and water, water is dosed with Calcium Carbonate (CaCO₃). In water SO₂ creates an acidic environment and addition of CaCO₃ creates alkalinity in water which negates the acidic nature of water. The tower is filled with the random packing that allows the effective area of contact between the flue gases and water thereby increasing the residence time. An increase in residence time helps in increasing the transfer of SO₂ and ash from flue gases to water until they get in equilibrium before the cross each other.

Source:www.thermodyneboilers.com