CFD simulation of chemical reaction between sulfur dioxide and water in a venturi scrubber

ABSTRACT

The use of fossil fuel, i.e., coal, was first initiated in 1880s for electricity generation. It was used extensively worldwide due to its cheap rate. Consequently, there is an adverse effect on the environment that results in a climate change. Many industries were working on cleaning flue gases emitted from coal power plants according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards by using different scrubbing technologies and venturi scrubber is one of them having ability to remove particulates and toxic gases simultaneously. Industries were using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques to fully understand the gases behavior inside scrubbing technologies prior employed in the project. This research represents CFD simulation to study abatement process of sulfur dioxide through chemical reaction with water in a venturi scrubber. Parameters such as mass concentration of sulfurous acid formation, sulfur dioxide and water mass content distribution inside venturi scrubber were analyzed. The sulfur dioxide removal efficiency was also investigated. The results show that water mass content distribution was greatly influenced by sulfur dioxide mass flow rates. Desulfurization efficiency depreciates with an increase in sulfur dioxide mass flow rate, whereas efficiency increases with accession in liquid to gas ratio. Maximum sulfur dioxide removal was observed at lower sulfur dioxide concentration comparatively to higher concentration of sulfur dioxide.