Air pollution is a major concern for entrepreneurs across industries. During manufacturing, toxic gasses, chemicals and particulates are produced, and industries need to find ways to control pollution. One of the common ways they use is industrial scrubber systems. They help remove chemicals, particles and toxic gasses from exhaust gas streams. So, what are industrial scrubbers, their applications and their benefits?
What are industrial scrubbers?
They refer to air pollution control devices that use liquid to remove particulates or gases from industrial exhaust. The liquid is atomized to help entrain pollutant gases and particles and wash them out of the gas flow.
Gas scrubbers are one of the best ways to control pollution as they are multidisciplinary. They can remove mists, solids and gases simultaneously and provide Cooling. In addition, scrubbers can safely handle explosive and highly flammable gases.
Applications of industrial scrubbers
Scrubbers can be used in various industrial processes and are made through fabrication engineering. It’s compulsory for any industry that produces high levels of toxins or burns fossil fuels to have these systems.
Some of the common applications of industrial scrubbers include:
- Steel mills
- Fertilizer plants
- Large power plants
- Asphalt plants
- Waste incineration installations
- Chemical industry
- Storage and transfer of chemicals
- Acid plants
- Surface treatment
What are the different types of industrial scrubbers?
Industrial scrubbers are grouped depending on their working principles.
There are three groups, namely:
- Dry scrubbers
- Wet scrubbers
- Electrostatic precipitators
Wet scrubbers
It’s a basic industrial scrubber that uses a wet substance to take out harmful substances. The wet substance is encapsulated in a metal or composite container. The wet substance dissolves the contaminants when the toxic gas passes via the container.
Dry scrubbers
These scrubbers use dry substances to purify the gas. It consists of a reaction centre with dry reaction materials to absorb harmful contaminants from polluted gasses. In addition, they are commonly used to get rid of acids found in gasses.
There are two different types of industrial scrubbers:
- Spray absorbent dryer technique where the toxic gasses are processed through a mist of the sorbent.
- Dry sorbent injection process where the gas is mixed with the alkaline sorbent
The scrubbers work the same as wet scrubbers, only that they are dry reagents. Although wet scrubbers are effective, industries prefer dry scrubbers because they create less waste than wet scrubbers.
Electrostatic Precipitators (ESPs)
These scrubbers use charged energy to remove dust and contaminants from a gas stream.
They balance the polarity and type of charge to bind and remove the pollutants from the gas stream. These scrubbers have a very high collection efficiency.
There are two types of ESPs depending on cleaning the collected particles. They include:
- Dry ESPs where the accumulated particles are expelled from collector plates as a dry material by mechanical impulse or vibration.
- Wet ESPs where the collector plates are washed with water.
Benefits of industrial scrubbers
Industrial scrubbers offer several benefits that include:
- Cooling of hot gasses
- Provide gas absorption and dust collection in a single unit
- Handling of flammable and explosive dust with little risk
- Neutralize corrosive gasses and dust
- It’s an effective method of pollution prevention.
- It’s a low-maintenance system.
Industrial scrubbers are essential in industries. They help remove toxic gasses, particulates and chemicals from the gas stream to reduce pollution. In addition, they are grouped according to their working principle. You can choose a wet, dry or electrostatic precipitator depending on what you want to clean from your gas stream.
