Control of Particulate emission

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
• The general principle of inertia
separation is that the particulate-laden
gas is forced to change direction. As gas
changes direction, the inertia of the
particles causes them to continue in the
original direction and be separated from
the gas stream.
• The walls of the cyclone narrow toward
the bottom of the unit, allowing the
particles to be collected in a hopper.
• The cleaner air leaves the cyclone
through the top of the chamber, flowing
upward in a spiral vortex, formed within a
downward moving spiral.
• Cyclones are efficient in removing large
particles but are not as efficient with
smaller particles. For this reason, they
are used with other particulate control
devices.
Figure: Cyclone Collector
 Filteration Mechanisms
1. Interception – occurs when a particle which is
following a gas streamline comes within one
particle radius of a filter fiber. The particle
touches the fiber and is captured, thus being
removed from the gas flow
2. Inertial impaction- occurs when a particle is
so large that it is unable to quickly adjust to
the abrupt changes in streamline direction
near a filter fiber.
• The particle, due to its inertia, will continue
along its original path and hit the filter fiber.
• predominant when high gas velocities and
dense fiber packing of the filter media is
present.
3. Diffusion - a gas is composed of a large
number of molecules which are small in size
when compared to the distances between
them. These molecules behave like ridged
spheres which travel in straight lines when
they're not bumping into each other. In
actuality, these molecules collide with each
other so much that they move in random,
zigzagging path. This random motion is
referred to as Brownian motion.
• The diffusion mechanism of particle retention is
the result of the Brownian motion of gas
molecules. Small particles, with diameters in the
range of 0.1 µm and below, tend to make random
motions due to their interaction with the
zigzagging gas molecules. As these small particles
are bumped by the gas molecules they too begin
moving randomly about, bumping into other
particles as well. Diffusion is predominant with
low gas velocities and smaller particles. The
smaller a particle is and the slower the flow, the
more time it will have to zigzag around, thereby
giving it much better chance of hitting and
sticking to a filter fiber.
 Fabric Filters
• Fabric filters, or baghouses, remove dust from a
gas stream by passing the stream through a
porous fabric. The fabric filter is efficient at
removing fine particles and can exceed efficiencies
of 99 percent in most applications.

Figure: Fabric filter (baghouse) components

Conti…..
• The selection of the fiber material and fabric
construction is important to baghouse
performance.

• The fiber material from which the fabric is made

must have adequate strength characteristics at
the maximum gas temperature expected and
adequate chemical compatibility with both the
gas and the collected dust.

• One disadvantage of the fabric filter is that high-

temperature gases often have to be cooled
before contacting the filter medium.
 Electrostatic Precipitators (ESPs)

• An ESP is a particle
control device that uses
electrical forces to move
the particles out of the
flowing gas stream and
onto collector plates.

• The ESP places electrical

charges on the particles,
causing them to be
attracted to oppositely
charged metal plates
located in the precipitator.
Figure: Electrostatic precipitator components
Conti….

• The particles are removed from the plates by

"rapping" and collected in a hopper located below the
unit.
• The removal efficiencies for ESPs are highly variable;
however, for very small particles alone, the removal
efficiency is about 99 percent.
• Electrostatic precipitators are not only used in utility
applications but also other industries (for other
exhaust gas particles) such as cement (dust), pulp &
paper (salt cake & lime dust), petrochemicals (sulfuric
acid mist), and steel (dust & fumes).
Control of Gaseous Pollutants
 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)
 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.
Types of Adsorption
• 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.

Regenerative Carbon Non-Regenerative Carbon

Adsorption System Adsorption System
 ABSORPTION
• The removal of one or more
selected components from a gas
mixture by absorption is probably the
most important operation in the
control of gaseous pollutant
emissions.
• Absorption is a process in which a
gaseous pollutant is dissolved in a
liquid.
• Water is the most commonly used
absorbent liquid.
• As the gas stream passes through
the liquid, the liquid absorbs the gas,
in much the same way that sugar is
absorbed in a glass of water when
stirred.

Typical Packed Column Diagram

Conti….

• Absorbers are often referred to as scrubbers, and there are

various types of absorption equipment.

• The principal types of gas absorption equipment include

• spray towers
• packed columns
• venture scrubbers

• In general, absorbers can achieve removal efficiencies

grater than 95 percent. One potential problem with
absorption is the generation of waste-water, which converts
an air pollution problem to a water pollution problem.
Spray Towers
Packed Towers
 Condensation
• Condensation is the process of converting a gas or
vapor to liquid. Any gas can be reduced to a liquid
by lowering its temperature and/or increasing its
pressure.

• Condensers are typically used as pretreatment

devices. They can be used ahead of absorbers,
adsorbers, and incinerators to reduce the total gas
volume to be treated by more expensive control
equipment. Condensers used for pollution control
are contact condensers and surface condensers.
• In a contact condenser,
the gas comes into
contact with cold liquid.
• In a surface condenser,
the gas contacts a cooled
surface in which cooled
liquid or gas is circulated,
such as the outside of the Contact condenser
tube.
• Removal efficiencies of
condensers typically
range from 50 percent to
more than 95 percent,
depending on design and
applications.

Surface condenser
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 case

Catalytic 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