Spray chamber cyclone

Almost all particle-separating devices can be converted into wet scrubbers by adding liquid spraying systems. Three types of commonly used scrubbers are the spray chamber, cyclonic scrubber, and venturi scrubber. Figure 7.18 shows a simple spray chamber in which water is sprayed through a series of nozzles into a settling chamber. The dust-laden gas is fed from the bottom of the chamber and exits from the upper portion of the chamber. 

Spray chamber - cyclonic spray chamber for organic solvent. 

Includes cyclonic, dynamic, filtration, inertial impaction (wetted targets, packed towers, turbulent targets), spray chambers, and venturi. 

Fig. 2. Types of spiay towers (a) horizontal spray chamber (b) simple vertical spray tower (c) cyclonic spray tower, Pease-Anthony type (d) cyclonic spray...

Spray Dryers A spray diyer consists of a large cyhndrical and usu ly vertical chamber into which material to be dried is sprayed in the form of small droplets and into which is fed a large volume of hot gas sufficient to supply the heat necessary to complete evaporation of the liquid. Heat transfer and mass transfer are accomphshed by direct contact of the hot gas with the dispersed droplets. After completion of diying, the cooled gas and solids are separated. This may be accomplished partially at the bottom of the diying chamber by classification and separation of the coarse dried particles. Fine particles are separated from the gas in external cyclones or bag collectors. When only the coarse-particle fraction is desired for fini ed product, fines may be recovered in wet scrubbers the scrubber liquid is concentrated and returned as feed to the diyer. Horizontal spray chambers are manufactured with a longitudinal screw conveyor in the bottom of the diying chamber for continuous removal of settled coarse particles. 

When the pollutant loading is exeeptionally high or consists of relatively large particles (> 2 /tm), venturi scrubbers or spray chambers may be used to reduce the load on the ESP. Much larger particles (> 10 /tm) are controlled with mechanical collectors such as cyclones. Gas conditioning equipment to reduce both inlet concentration and gas temperature is occasionally used as part of the original design of wet ESPs (AWMA, 1992 Flynn, 1999). 

Methods of dust removal depend mainly on the particle size of the dust and the temperature and moisture content of the gas. The methods used are broadly divided into dry methods and wet methods. The dry methods involve the use of gravity and baffle chambers, cyclones, filters, and electrostatic precipitators, while the wet methods involve the use of spray towers and venturi scrubbers. In principle, wet cleaning is preferred to dry cleaning because of the excessive wear associated with and the difficulty in handling the fine dusty material removed in the dry methods. The wet methods, however, must be followed by such operations as filtration, drying of filter cakes, and recycling of water. 

Cyclonic spray chambers greatly reduce matrix effects. 

From the sample solution to be analyzed, small droplets are formed by the nebulization of the solution using an appropriate concentric or cross-flow pneumatic nebulizer/spray chamber system. Quite different solution introduction systems have been created for the appropriate generation of an aerosol from a liquid sample and for separation of large size droplets. Such an arrangement provides an efficiency of the analyte introduction in the plasma of 1-3 % only.6 The rest (97 % to 99%) goes down in the drain.7 Beside the conventional Meinhard nebulizer, together with cooled or non-cooled Scott spray chamber or conical spray chamber, several types of micronebulizers together with cyclonic spray chambers are employed for routine measurements in ICP-MS laboratories. The solvent evaporated from each droplet forms a particle which is vaporized into atoms and molecules... 

Meinhard or MicroMist nebulizer and cyclonic spray chamber... 

Figure 5.1 Main parts of an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer sample introduction systems (left column), e.g., Meinhard or MicroMist nebulizer with cyclonic spray chamber, ultrasonic nebulizer, microconcentric nebulizer and laser ablation system (all from CETAC Technologies), ion source (middle column) and several types of mass spectrometers, (a) Agilent 7500 from Agilent, (b) Platform from CV Instruments, or (c) Element from Thermo Fisher Scientific. (Parts of this figure were reproduced with permission from CETAC Technologies, Agilent, CV Instruments and Thermo Tisher Scientific, respectively.)...

The APEX system (Element Scientific Inc., Omaha) as an improved Aridus nebulizer was introduced for ICP-MS in 2004 for more effective solution introduction at flow rates from 20-400 p,lmin-1.88 In this solution introduction system (see Figure 5.15), a microflow PFA nebulizer is combined with a heated cyclonic spray chamber followed by cooling of the nebulized aerosol in a condenser loop and using a multipass condenser cooled by a Peltier element. The APEX solution introduction system results in a significant increase of sensitivity (by a factor of ten in comparison to a standard nebulizer spray chamber arrangement) and a decreasing polyatomic formation rate.89... 

Figure 5.15 Experimental arrangement of microconcentric PFA nebulizer with heated cyclonic spray chamber and Peltier cooled multipass condenser APEX. (Reproduced by permission of Element Scientific Inc., Omaha).

On line additions of aqueous standard solutions for the calibration of LA-ICP-MS including a comparison of wet and dry plasma conditions are discussed by O Connor et al.ls For solution calibration of standard solutions the authors used a 100 (xl PFA nebulizer together with a cyclonic spray chamber or a MCN-6000 sample introduction system with desolvator, to study the wet and dry plasma, respectively. A polypropylene Y piece was applied to mix the laser ablated material and the nebulized standard solutions. The authors found that the on line addition of water is the preferred mode of operation for quantification by LA-ICP-MS, i.e., wet plasma is more stable (improved standard deviation of sensitivity ratios). 

An aerosol generated by nebulization is directed through a spray chamber (nebulizer chamber). This is usually made of glass, quartz, or inert polymers (Ryton or several fluorine-based polymers), which prevents large aerosol droplets from reaching the plasma. The classical Scott chamber design has been superseded by the cyclonic chamber, which has a 50% better sensitivity. 

Three different spray chamber designs (Fig. 3.6) are most often used for ICP-MS the Scott [15] (double-barrel) chamber, a conical chamber with an impact bead, and a cyclonic chamber [14,16,17]. The cyclonic spray chamber typically provides a slightly (up to about a factor of 2 or 3) higher analyte transport efficiency as well as somewhat shorter washout times. In some cases the spray chamber is cooled (such as on the HP 4500 ICP-MS double-pass spray chamber, which is cooled to 4°C) to reduce the amount of water vapor that enters the ICP further so that signals from polyatomic ions containing oxygen are reduced. The cooled spray chamber also helps maintain a stable spray chamber temperature. 

Figure 6 Spray chambers (a) Scott, double-pass design, (b) Conical chamber with impact bead, (c) Cyclone spray chamber (top view), (d) Cyclone spray chamber (side view).

Other elements were measured by a Perkin-Elmer SCIEX ELAN 6100 DRCII Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) instrument equipped with a cyclonic spray chamber, a concentric nebulizer and a dynamic reaction cell (DRC). In the vented (standard) mode, no reaction gas is present in the cell and the instrument shows the typical characteristics of a quadrupole-based ICP-MS apparatus. When the gas is introduced into the cell an ion-molecule reaction takes place that can be tailored so as to eliminate spectroscopic interferences. Experimental conditions are summarized in Table 10.2. 

To quantify the trace elements of interest plasma-based techniques were used, namely (i) ICP-AES using an Optima 3100 instrument (Perkin-Elmer, Norwalk, CT, USA) equipped with a cross-flow nebulizer and a Ryton Scott spray chamber (ii) Dynamic Reaction Cell (DRC) Q-ICP-MS using an Elan 6100 spectrometer (PerkinElmer, Norwalk, CT, USA) equipped with a quartz cross-flow Meinhard nebulizer and a cyclonic spray chamber (iii) SF-ICP-MS using an Elementl (ThermoElectron, Bremen, Germany) with a pneumatic nebulizer and a Ryton Scott spray chamber. 

Apparatus Use a suitable Inductively Coupled Plasma Emission Spectrophotometer set to 226.502 nm for cadmium and to 371.029 for yttrium (internal standard) with an axial view mode. (This method was developed using a Perkin-Elmer Model 3300 DV equipped with a sapphire injector, low-flow GemCone nebulizer, cyclonic spray chamber, and yttrium internal standard.) Use acid-rinsed plastic volumetric flasks and other labware. 

A review of Table 8 and Fig. 3-2 indicates that large-diameter particles can be removed with low-energy devices such as settling chambers, cyclones, and spray chambers. Submicron particles must be removed with high-energy units such as bag filters, electrostatic precipitators, and venturi scrubbers. Intermediate particles can be removed with impingement separators or low-energy wet collectors. Obviously, other equipment performance characteristics as noted in Table 8 will also have their influence on the final equipment... 

Figure 3 Different designs of spray chamber (a) double pass (b) cyclonic (c) single pass. (Reproduced with permission Mora, Maestre, Hemandis and Todoli 2003, Elsevier)...

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