Chapter four

Air pollution control methods and

Equipment
 Controls Methods
The control of air emissions may be realized in a number of
ways.
Approaches of Air Pollution Control
 Limitation/Prohibition of emission by laws
/legislations

 Determine which substances should be limited,

and to what extent they should be limited,

 Determine the effects of each substance on

health, damage to property & esthetic values,

 Find out the interaction of different pollutant

substances etc.
Air Pollution Control System
Air Pollution Control Strategy
 Controls Methods
 Air pollution control laws are complicated by differences
in applications to new and existing sources, and to
mobile and stationary sources.

 Most preferred and effective means of air pollution

control is Source correction:

 source correction/ reduction method.

 Changing or eliminating a process that produces a

polluting air effluent is often easier than trying to trap
the effluent.
 Controls Methods
 Source correction include:
 Process changes

 Raw material substitution/changes, and

 Equipment modification or replacement

 cleaning technology (green technology)

 Processes may also be modified to reduce air pollution.

 Source reduction is the most cost-effective approaches to

controlling the emission of air contaminants
 Controls Methods
Treatment / End-of-Pipe Option
 Treatment methods are applied where pollutants cannot
be prevented by source control option (use equipment)
Example Cleaning of gaseous effluent
 Gas cleaning techniques can be used alone or in
conjunction with source correction methods.

Emission control equipment can be classified as:

 Particulate matter control
 Gaseous pollutant control
 Controls Methods
Particulate emission control
 Particulate matter emitted in gases streams consists of
discrete and minute suspended particles
Choice of collection device depends up on:-
 physical and chemical characteristics of particles
 particulate size and concentration in a gas
 volume of particulate to be handled
 temperature and humidity of gaseous medium.
 Collection efficiency= collected particulate/input
particulate
 Collection efficiency
 Collection efficiency:
 is the measure of performance of a system.
 The most common way of express in the efficiency is
interims of weight of the material caught in or retained
by the collector compared with the total amount entering
of the collector.

 In particulate collection efficiency of collection device

with particle size often expressed as forms of fractional
efficiency.
 Particulate Control Methods/Processes
Basic mechanisms of removing particulate matters
from a gas streams are:

 Gravitational settling

 Centrifugal impaction

 Interception

 Diffusion

 Electrostatic precipitation
 Particulate Control Methods/Processes
 Gravity; the force of gravity is sufficient to pull very large
particles out of a gas stream.

 Some mechanical separators are designed to slow a gas

stream to allow particles to settle.

 However, gravity is a weak mechanism for all but the

heaviest particles.

 Diffusion; important only for very small particles ( < 0.1 μm

diameter) because the Brownian motion allows them to
move in a “random walk” away from the air stream
 Particulate Control Methods/Processes
 Interception works particles diam. b/n 0.1 and 1 μm.

 particle does not leave the air stream but comes into contact
with the filter medium (e.g. a strand of fiberglass or fabric fiber).

 Inertial impaction, collects particles sufficiently large to leave

the air stream by inertia (diameters > 1 μm).

 Electrostatics consist of electrical interactions between the

atoms in the filter and those in the particle at the point of
contact (Van der Waal’s force), as well as electrostatic attraction
(charge differences between particle and filter medium).
Particulate Control Methods/Processes

Mechanical processes important to filtration.

Particulate Control Equipment/Devices
 Common particulate control/ cleaning
devices/equipment include:
 Gravity settlers (often called settling chambers or
gravitational settling chambers)

 Mechanical collectors (cyclone separators)

 Fabric filters (bag-houses)

 Electrostatic precipitators (ESPs), and

 Wet Scrubbers (wet collectors)

 Gravitational settling chamber
 Usually apply for large particle size.
 usually > 50 micro meter from gas streams.
 There efficiencies are quite low for particles lower than
50 micro meters
 Particulate Control Equipment/Devices
 vertical settling chamber consists of number of trays
 collection efficiency of the device is/will be improved
since particle has a much shorter distance for (to) fall
before reaching the bottom of the passage between
trays.

vertical settling chamber

 Cyclone Separator/Centrifugal separation
 In a cyclone air is rapidly circulated causing suspended
particles to change directions.
 This works well for larger particles because of their relatively
large masses (and greater inertia), but very fine particles are
more likely to remain in the air stream and stay suspended.
 It used action of a centrifugal force by a spinning gas stream
to separate the particulate matter from the carrier gas. Since
centrifugal force is much grater than gravitational force.
 Cyclone are effective in removal of much smaller particles
than gravitational settling chamber.
 It is more selected for particles greater than 10 micro meter.
Cyclone Separator/Centrifugal separation
 Fabric filters (bag-houses)
 Filtration is the oldest and efficient methods for removing
particulate matter from effluent ( industrial) gases.

 Particles are trapped due to different physical mechanisms

such as inertial impaction, direct interception, and diffusion.

 Fabric bag collects the dust, which is removed periodically by

shaking the bag.

 Fabric filters can be very efficient collectors for even sub-

micrometer-sized particles

 Choice of fabric filter is based on operating temperature and

the corrosiveness of the particles.
 Fabric filters (bag-houses)

 “Baghouse” is a common term for the collection device

that uses fabric bags to filter particulate out of a gas
stream.

 The filter bags are mounted on a tube-sheet and

enclosed in a sheet-metal housing.

 The housing is visible and the single word “baghouse” is

easy to pronounce, but “filtration” is more technically
descriptive of the process.
 Fabric filters (bag-houses)
Filtration
 Fabric filters (bag-houses)
 Advantage

 Very high efficiency

 Collection of particles in dry form

 Relatively low pressure drop

 Disadvantage

 Large size

 High construction cost

 Application of the process temperature generally <285 0c

 Electrostatic precipitators (ESP)
 ESP: is the widely used device for controlling particulate
emissions from industries like power plant, cement,
papers mills, refinery etc.

 ES Precipitation is the physical process by which particles

suspended in a as stream are charged electrically and
under the effluence of electrical field separated from the
gas stream.

 The particles are electrically charged on passage past

these electrodes and then migrate through the
electrostatic field to a grounded collection electrode
Electrostatic precipitators (ESP)

Wire and pipe electrostatic precipitator

 Electrostatic precipitators (ESP)
 Advantages
 Less pressure drop, hence power requirement is small compare
to that in other device.
 more than 99% efficiency achieve
 can handle both gas and mists for high volume flow rate
 it can operate at high temperature and pressure
 Disadvantages
 high investment cost

 Sensitive to variable particle loading or flow rates

 Requires skilled man power for operation

 Requires safe guard for high voltage

 Wet scrubber
 The basic functioning of wet scrubber is to provide contact
b/n the scrubbing liquid usually water and the particulate to
be collected
 Methods of collecting:
 Inertia impaction > 0.3 micro meter
 direct interception > 0.3 micro meter
 diffusion < 0.3micrometer
 Based on contact b/n the scrubbing liquid and particles there
are variety's of scrubber:
Example
 spray tower: the most common and apply in most process
industries
 apply 5-10 micro meter diameter
 Centrifugal scrubber
 Packed bed/plate colum
 Wet scrubber
 Venturi scrubber- the most efficient but require high amount
of energy
 Separate even < 0.3 micro meter
 Advantage
 Simultaneous removal of gases and particles

 An effective performance over wide loading rate

 Equipment occupies moderate amount of space compared to

dry collector such as bag house

 Hazard of explosive dust air mixture are reduced.

 Independent to the temperature and moisture content of gas

 Corrosive gases may be neutralized by proper choice of

scrubbing liquid.
 Wet scrubber
 Disadvantage
 High energy cost

 Problem of wet sludge disposal

 Corrosions problem

 Very small particles (some micro size) may not be capture.

 Wet scrubber
 Disadvantage
 High energy cost

 Problem of wet sludge disposal

 Corrosions problem

 Very small particles (some micro size) may not be capture.

 Spray Tower

 Simplest type of scrubber in w/h water is introduced by

means of spray nozzle.

 The collection mechanism:

 impaction & interception and most dominant diffusion

 Spray Tower
 The efficiency of a spray tower is the complex function of

 droplet size

 flow velocity of the gas

 liquid gas ratio

 drop let trajectories

 Centrifugal Scrubbers
 The collection efficiency for particles smaller than those
recovered in spray towers can be increased through the
use of centrifugal scrubbers.

 The simplest type of centrifugal scrubber can be

constructed by inserting bands of nozzles inside a
conventional dry cyclone.

 Packed beds and plate column

 The polluted gas stream moves upward and comes in

contact to take a curved path through the pore spaces
while the particles are captured by inertial impaction.
 Packed beds and plate column
 Smaller packing increases the efficiency of collection but its
shape does no appear to affect the collection efficiency.

 Venturi Scrubbers

 It offer high performance collection of fine particles, usually

smaller than 2 to 3 micrometer in diameter.

 They are particularly suitable when the particulate matter is

sticky, flammable or highly corrosive.

 High performance is achieved by accelerating the gas stream

to very high velocities of the order of 60-120m/s

 The mechanisms are inertial impaction, diffusion,

electrostatic and condensation and agglomeration
Venturi Scrubbers
 Selection of a particulate collector
 The selection of a suitable control device for a specific
application requires consideration of:

 particle size

 concentration

 desired efficiency of collection

 costs

 space available and

 maintenance factors

 After selection, a comparative cost analysis must be

conducted including the operating and the maintenance cost.
 Control of Gaseous Emission(pollutants)
 Control of Gaseous Emission(pollutants)

 There are two techniques:

 Physical - sorption- absorption (adsorption) of gases by

liquid or solid respectively

 Chemical alteration: can be

 combustion or

 catalytic treatment or rxn

 thermal incinerator.
 Control of Gaseous Emission(pollutants)
 Absorption by liquid

 Absorption is one of the most frequently used techniques

for controlling the concentrations of gaseous pollutants

 Selection of the scrubbing medium

 effectiveness of absorption process for air pollution control

mostly depends on the selection of a suitable scrubbing
medium.

 Some properties of solvents, important in industrial

applications, are

 High gas solubility and high selectivity b/n solute species

 Some properties of solvents
 Low vapor pressure

 Non corrosiveness

 Easy regeneration an recovery

 Low costs

 Low viscosity at absorption temperature

 Not toxicity

 Non flammability and chemical stability

 In addition, the chosen scrubbing medium should not

cause water pollution or waste disposal problems.
 Some properties of solvents
 Some of the commonly used absorbers in air pollution
control are packed towers, plate and spray towers and
venture scrubbers.

 Adsorption by solids

 attractive forces holding molecules at the surface may be

either physical (physical adsorption) or chemical
(chemisorption) in nature.

 These are widely used in the field of odor control for

removing small quantities of pollutants present in a
large volume of air.
 Some properties of solvents
 The rate of adsorption of a substance depends on :

 the concentration of the materials around the adsorbent

 the surface area to the adsorbent

 the pore volume of the adsorbent and

 some other properties such as

 temperature, molecular polarities and

 chemical nature of the adsorbent surface.

 Some of the adsorbents commonly used in air pollution

control are:-activated carbon ,silica gel, activated alumina
and molecular sieves.
 Combustion
 Many industrial processes produce gas streams that have
no recovery value, so absorption or adsorption methods
may not be economically feasible.

 Combustion applications include the destruction of odors,

toxic substances and reactive materials.

 products of combustion of organic materials are normally

odorless, colorless and harmless giving off carbon dioxide
and water vapor.

 There are three methods of combustion in common use

today:
 Combustion
 direct combustion (or flaring)

 thermal incineration (also called after burning or flame

combustion) and catalytic oxidation

 Catalytic oxidation

 Is applied when thermal incineration of very diluted

pollutants is not economically feasible due to additional
fuel cost

 The combustion takes place on a catalyst usually at

temperatures several degrees below the required for
thermal incineration.