Influence of Flow Parameters on Capture of Carbon Dioxide Gas by a Wet Scrubber

There is currently much concern over the issues of carbon dioxide emissions and climate change. Economic growth has driven carbon dioxide emission to 6 billion tonnes annually. Analysis has shown that carbon dioxide forms 13 to 15% of the combustion exhaust gases that are released directly into the atmosphere. Such concentrations can be effectively reduced using wet scrubbing. This is a capture mechanism involving the interaction of a liquid and a gas phase in a counter flow configuration. This paper presents the performance of a wet scrubbing system based on variation in flow properties. The results show that an increase in liquid and gas flow rate causes a 19% in carbon dioxide absorption. This resulted from proper mixing of gas and liquid phases within the absorber facilitated by the packed bed surface. Heating of the carbon dioxide gas caused an increase in absorption of more than 10% for varying liquid flow rate and of 14% for varying gas flow rate. This was attributed to an increase in heat energy for the reaction of carbon dioxide and water.