EE-Unit-II Air pollution Control
- Air quality management sets the tools to control air pollutant emissions.
- Control measurements describes the equipment, processes or actions used to reduce air pollution.
- The extent of pollution reduction varies among technologies and measures.
- The selection of control technologies depends on environmental, engineering, economic factors and pollutant type.
Settling Chambers
- Settling chambers use the force of gravity to remove solid particles.
- The gas stream enters a chamber where the velocity of the gas is reduced. Large particles drop out of the gas and are recollected in hoppers. Because settling chambers are effective in removing only larger particles, they are used in conjunction with a more efficient control device.
Figure: Settling chambers
Cyclones
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Venturi Scrubbers
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Figure: Fabric filter (baghouse) components |
Electrostatic Precipitators (ESPs)
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Figure: Electrostatic precipitator components |
Control of gaseous pollutants from stationary sources
- The most common method for controlling gaseous pollutants is the addition of add-on control devices to recover or destroy a pollutant.
- There are four commonly used control technologies for gaseous pollutants:
– Absorption,
– Adsorption,
– Condensation, and
– Incineration (combustion)
Absorption
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Adsorption
- When a gas or vapor is brought into contact with a solid, part of it is taken up by the solid. The molecules that disappear from the gas either enter the inside of the solid, or remain on the outside attached to the surface. The former phenomenon is termed absorption (or dissolution) and the latter adsorption.
- The most common industrial adsorbents are activated carbon, silica gel, and alumina, because they have enormous surface areas per unit weight.
- Activated carbon is the universal standard for purification and removal of trace organic contaminants from liquid and vapor streams.
Carbon adsorption systems are either regenerative or non-regenerative.
– Regenerative system usually contains more than one carbon bed. As one bed actively removes pollutants, another bed is being regenerated for future use.
– Non-regenerative systems have thinner beds of activated carbon. In a non-regenerative adsorber, the spent carbon is disposed of when it becomes saturated with the pollutant.
Condensation
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Incineration
- Incineration, also known as combustion, is most used to control the emissions of organic compounds from process industries.
- This control technique refers to the rapid oxidation of a substance through the combination of oxygen with a combustible material in the presence of heat.
When combustion is complete, the gaseous stream is converted to carbon dioxide and water vapor. - Equipment used to control waste gases by combustion can be divided in three categories:
– Direct combustion or flaring,
– Thermal incineration and
– Catalytic incineration.
Direct combustor
- Direct combustor is a device in which air and all the combustible waste gases react at the burner. Complete combustion must occur instantaneously since there is no residence chamber.
- A flare can be used to control almost any emission stream containing volatile organic compounds. Studies conducted by EPA have shown that the destruction efficiency of a flare is about 98 percent.
In thermal incinerators the combustible waste gases pass over or around a burner flame into a residence chamber where oxidation of the waste gases is completed. Thermal incinerators can destroy gaseous pollutants at efficiencies of greater than 99 percent when operated correctly.
Thermal incinerator general caseCatalytic incinerators are very similar to thermal incinerators. The main difference is that after passing through the flame area, the gases pass over a catalyst bed. A catalyst promotes oxidation at lower temperatures, thereby reducing fuel costs. Destruction efficiencies greater than 95 percent are possible using a catalytic incinerator.
Catalytic incinerator
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