RESEARCH ARTICLE

Removal of SO2 using ammonium bicarbonate aqueous solution as absorbent in a bubble column reactor

  • Xiaolei LI ,
  • Chunying ZHU ,
  • Youguang MA
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  • School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China

Received date: 21 Jan 2013

Accepted date: 25 Mar 2013

Published date: 05 Jun 2013

Copyright

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Abstract

In this work, the removal of SO2 from gas mixture with air and SO2 by ammonium bicarbonate aqueous solution as absorbent was investigated experimentally in a bubble column reactor. The effects of the concentration of ammonium bicarbonate, the SO2 inlet concentration of gas phase and the gas flow rate on the removal rate of SO2 were studied. The results showed that the higher the SO2 inlet concentration and the gas flow rate, the shorter the lasting time of SO2 completely removed in gas outlet, and then the faster the decrease in the removal rate of SO2. The lasting time of SO2 completely removed in gas outlet increased with increasing ammonium bicarbonate concentration. During the process of SO2 absorption, there was a critical pH of solution. When the solution pH was less than the critical pH, it would sharply fall, resulting in a rapid decrease of the SO2 removal rate. A theoretical model for predicting the SO2 removal rate has been developed by taking the chemical enhancement and the sulfite concentration in the liquid phase into account simultaneously.

Cite this article

Xiaolei LI , Chunying ZHU , Youguang MA . Removal of SO2 using ammonium bicarbonate aqueous solution as absorbent in a bubble column reactor[J]. Frontiers of Chemical Science and Engineering, 2013 , 7(2) : 185 -191 . DOI: 10.1007/s11705-013-1326-5

Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 21076139).
Nomenclature
aSpecific interfacial area per unit volume, m2·m-3
ALiquid-phase concentration of A, mol·m-3
Aii = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 parameters in Eq. (16)
ArDebye-Hückel parameters in Eq. (15)
BrDebye-Hückel parameters in Eq. (15)
CALConcentration of the component A in the liquid bulk, mol·L-1
CAGConcentration of the component A in the gas phase, mg·m-3
dbAverage gas bubble diameter, m
d0Orifice diameter, m
dRBubble column reactor diameter, m
DDiffusion coefficient, m2·s-1
EEenhancement factor
GGravitational constant, m·s-2
HHenry’s law coefficient
HaHatta number
IIonic strength, kmol·m–3
kii = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 reaction rate constant
kGGas side mass transfer coefficient, m·s-1
kLLiquid side mass transfer coefficient, m·s-1
kmnReaction rate constant in Eq. (28)
Kii = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 equilibrium constant
KLTotal mass transfer coefficient of SO2, m·s-1
KCTotal mass transfer coefficient of CO2, m·s-1
QVolume flow rate of gas, L·min-1
Re0The orifice Reynolds number
ubBubble rise velocity, m·s-1
Greek letter
ϵGGas hold-up
μGViscosity of gas phase, kg·m-1·s-1
μLViscosity of liquid phase, kg·m-1·s-1
ρGGas density, kg·m-3
ρLLiquid density, kg·m-3
σLSurface tension of liquid, N·m-1
γActivity coefficient
Subscripts
CCarbon dioxide
GGas phase
LLiquid phase
SSulfur dioxide
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