Spray drier absorption

Kaplan, S.M. and Felsvang, K. (1981) "Spray drier absorption of SO2 from industrial boiler flue gases , AIChEJ Symp. Ser., 54, 23. 

There are hundreds of desulfurization processes proposed in the literature. These processes may be classified as wet and dry (Patkar, 1981). Spray drier absorption is a semi-wet system in which an alkali slurry is fed to the unit and the reaction product is collected dry. This process is generally applied to power stations. It is reported by Felsvang et al (1988) that spray drier scrubbers are in operation in power plants of over 10,000 MWe in different parts of Ae world. These absorbers are generally coupled with fabric filters or electrostatic precipitators to collect particulates. Spray drier absorption is experienced as a wet-dry system with different reagents such as lime, limestone, trona (natural soda) and ammonia. 

Experimental investigations and theoretical computations of SO2 absorption in a spray drier [47] showed that, with an excess of calcium hydroxide absorption is limited only by the gas-phase mass transfer. In addition, the flow in a spray drier could be described by the model of an ideal stirred vessel. Newton et al. [70] considered the subprocesses of mass transfer of SO2 from the gaseous phase to the drop surface, the absorption, the dissociation of SO2, the diffusion of the produced species and the dissolution of calcium hydroxide particles in the drop. 

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