Scrubbing operation efficiency

Over time the operating efficiency of hydrofluoric acid alkylation units has improved in order to minimize waste streams as well as minimize the actual hydrofluoric acid inventory. However, the only way to eliminate these issues completely is to develop a process based on a heterogeneous acid catalyst. Such a process would eliminate the hydrofluoric acid transportation and inventory, result in no waste polymer product, and would not require fluoride scrubbing and concomitant disposal of fluoride-containing solids. 

A variation of the nonregenerable absorption is the spray dry process. Lime slurry is sprayed through an atomizing nozzle into a tower where it countercurrently contacts the flue gas. The sulfur dioxide is absorbed and water in the slurry evaporated as calcium sulfite—sulfate collects as a powder at the bottom of the tower. The process requires less capital investment, but is less efficient than regular scrubbing operations. 

By far the greatest number of instaUations is for the removal or recoveiy of mostly small concentrations of acidic and other components from air, hydrocarbons, and hydrogen. Hundreds of such plants are in operation, many of them of great size. They mostly employ either packed or tray towers. Power requirements for such equipment are small. When the presence of solid impurities could clog the equipment or when the pressure drop must be low, spray towers are used in spite of their much larger size for a given capacity and scrubbing efficiency. 

While ethyl chloride is one of the least toxic of all chlorinated hydrocarbons, CE is a toxic pollutant. The off-gas from the reactor is scrubbed with water in two absoiption columns. The first column is intended to recover the majority of unreacted ethanol, hydrogen chloride, and CE. The second scrubber purifies the product fiom traces of unreacted materials and acts as a back-up column in case the first scrubber is out of operation. Each scrubber contains two sieve plates and has an overall column efficiency of 65% (i.e., NTP = 1.3). Following the scrubber, ethyl chloride is finished and sold. The aqueous streams leaving the scrubbers are mixed and recycled to the reactor. A fraction of the CE recycled to the reactor is reduced to ethyl chloride. This side reaction will be called the reduction reaction. The rate of CE depletion in the reactor due to this reaction can be approximated by the following pseudo first order expression ... 

These operations may sometimes be better kno Ti as mist entrainment, decantation, dust collection, filtration, centrifugation, sedimentation, screening, classification, scrubbing, etc. They often involve handling relatively large quantities of one phase in order to collect or separate the other. Therefore the size of the equipment may become very large. For the sake of space and cost it is important that the equipment be specified and rated to Operate as efficiently as possible [9]. This subject will be limited here to the removal or separation of liquid or solid particles from a vapor or gas carrier stream (1. and 3. above) or separation of solid particles from a liquid (item 4j. Reference [56] is a helpful review. 

Condensation Scrubbing The collection efficiency of scrubbing can be increased by the simultaneous condensation of water vapor from the gas stream. Water-vapor condensation assists in particle removal by two entirely different mechanisms. One is the deposition of particles on cold-water droplets or other surfaces as the result of Stefan flow. The other is the condensation of water vapor on particles as nuclei, which enlarges the particles and makes them more readily collected by inertial deposition on droplets. Both mechanisms can operate simultaneously. However, for the buildup of particles by condensation to be effective, there must be adequate time for the particles to grow substantially before the principal gas-liquid-contacting operation takes... 

From an operator s perspective, the scrubbing system required very little attention. Normally, the only attention required is a routine walk-by of the equipment to ensure that everything is in normal operation. Since 1998 the refinery took the RCC out of operation and moved the EDV Wet Scrubbing System over to their SRU and applied it as a tail gas cleaning device. The system is presently operating at very high efficiency as a tail gas unit to rave reviews of the refinery client. 

Another hydrogenation process utilizes internally generated hydrogen for hydroconversion in a single-stage, noncatalytic, fluidized-bed reactor (41). Biomass is converted in the reactor, which is operated at about 2.1 kPa, 800°C, and residence times of a few minutes with steam-oxygen injection. About 95% carbon conversion is anticipated to produce a medium heat value (MHV) gas which is subjected to the shift reaction, scrubbing, and methanation to form SNG. The cold gas thermal efficiencies are estimated to be about 60%. 

I, it was operated at several different conditions to explore the scrubbing efficiency, the effect of chloride buildup in the scrubbing liquor, and to obtain a material balance. Tables IA and IB summarize the data obtained in the 13 runs made in the pilot plant. 

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