SCRUBBER  ABSORBER        NEWSLETTER               

                                                                                                                  January 2005
                                                                                                                         No. 367

Is a 1 CFM Scrubber Nearly as Good as a 100 or 1000 CFM One?

One approach is for vendors to operate a 1000 CFM pilot unit at a specific site prior to bidding. Guarantees can be made based on the performance of the pilot unit. After installation of the full-scale unit, the 1000 CFM unit can be run in parallel to the full-scale unit and a determination can be made as to whether conditions changed between the bid date and the date of operation. This approach will work for discrete particulate, condensibles (including SO₃) and mercury.

In the case of mercury the question of meeting guarantees is simplified. If the emissions of mercury from the 1000 CFM pilot are greater after the full-scale installation than at the time of the bid, then the supplier should only have to duplicate the results of the pilot unit with the full-scale unit.

There are disadvantages of running a 1000 CFM pilot plant. Cost and time are two obvious drawbacks, but there are others. The results are only meaningful for one scrubber design on one plant. It is difficult to extrapolate this data to other plants. More importantly it is difficult to extrapolate the data to determine the impact of fuel changes or other significant operation changes on scrubber performance.

 It is therefore desirable to develop a standard scrubber which would function as does the cascade impactor but would directly determine the dust and or mercury difficulty rather than some indirect parameter. Fortunately there is considerable experience both with 100 CFM and even 1 CFM units. This experience can be used to develop industry standards.

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