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

Increase in atmospheric temperature has been found to cause a rise in sea level, melting of snow in ice capped mountains,prolonged drought among others. This is due to increase in energy demand for economic growth which in turn has caused emission of carbon dioxide at a rate of 6 billion tonnes annually. Analysis has shown that carbon dioxide forms between 13 to 15% of the combustion exhaust gases that are released directly into the atmosphere. Such concentrations areeectively reduced using wet scrubbing. This is a capturing mechanism that involves interaction of a liquid and the gas phase in a counter ow conguration. In this paper the performance of such a system based on variation in flow properties is presented. Results have shown that an increase in liquid and gas flow rate causes a 19% rise in absorption of carbon dioxide. This was as a result of 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 by 14% for varying gas flow rate. This was attributed to an increase in heat energy for reaction of carbon dioxide and water.