SCRUBBER  ABSORBER        NEWSLETTER               

                                                                                                                  January 2005
                                                                                                                         No. 367

Experience with Miniature Scrubbers

In the late 1960s and early 1970s Combustion Engineering in partnership with Environeering was offering SO₂ removal systems which replaced existing precipitators and provided both particulate and SO₂ removal. In order to make accurate guarantees, Environeering developed the 100 CFM Dust Difficulty Determinator. This is just a simple orifice scrubber. Pressure drop can be varied to change particulate and SO₂ removal efficiency. This device was utilized to test many boilers. It proved to be as accurate as a 1000 CFM scrubber. Environeering was later acquired by what is now Babcock Power, so assumably details of this device are still available somewhere.

McIlvaine took the concept one step further and reduced the orifice scrubber to just 1 CFM so it could be used in standard sampling trains. Dupont, AERE Harwell, Air Pol, Nalco, Martin Marietta and other organizations have successfully used this device to predict scrubber performance. It was given the commercial name of the McIlvaine Mini Scrubber. McIlvaine offered the drawings and concept free of charge to the Institute of Clean Air Companies, if the organization would work toward adopting some standards. Several members began using the device but the organization never banded together to make it a standard bid tool.

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