Question

How is scrubber used? Give its advantages.

Answer 1

Hint: These are air pollution control devices. They work by capturing the particulate matter in liquid droplets. They collect the droplets while absorbing the pollutant gases. They have many advantages. They are very efficient and useful for removing harmful gases or even chemicals from the air.

Complete answer: Scrubbers are air pollution control devices that can be used to remove some particulates and/or gases from industrial exhaust streams. These are the devices which are helpful for the removal of harmful gases and particulate matter from incinerators, electrical power plants, and furnaces before they enter into the atmosphere. Scrubbers are connected to the stream of exhaust which cleans the dirty gases and components and releases the clean gas. Often the pollutants include chlorine, ammonia and sulfur components.
Scrubbers are of two types: wet scrubbers and dry scrubbers. Wet scrubbers are able to remove the particulate matter by capturing them into liquid droplets. Dry scrubbers are used to remove acidic gases primarily from combustion sources. Both the wet as well as dry scrubber work differently to remove the respective particulate matter
Scrubbers are highly efficient and they work either by dissolving or absorbing the pollutants into the scrubbing liquid. When we compare other air pollution control devices the scrubbers are very multidisciplinary. They can remove the mists, gases and solids simultaneously while also providing cooling.
Advantages of scrubber- they consume less space than other pollution control devices. Its vessel size, fan and ducts downstream are also smaller. Because of which there is low capital costs and is more flexible. It is helpful in removing harmful gases like Sulphur dioxide. If this is not removed then it may result in acid rain.

Note:
There are also disadvantages of scrubbers that it is expensive to maintain and implement. The scrubbers are also used for heat recovery from hot gases by flue-gas condensation. They are additionally used for the high flows in solar, PV, or LED processes.