DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

CDB 3082 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING LAB 4

MAY 2019 SEMESTER
LAB REPORT
Title ; Experiment 04: Spray Chamber
Group ; 4
; Subhashini Alaganandham 16000893
; Sanmuga Priyan Latchumaya 16001442
; Amelia Malini Solomon Devaraj 16002008
; Mohammad Zikry Bin Abdul Razak 17007096
Lab Instructor : Madam Ruvaida
Date of Experiment : 17 May2019
Date of Submission : 24 May 2019
Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3
Literature review........................................................................................................................................... 4
Methodology................................................................................................................................................. 6
Results and Discussion .................................................................................................................................. 8
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 11
Errors and Recommendation ...................................................................................................................... 11
Appendix ..................................................................................................................................................... 13
References .................................................................................................................................................. 14
Introduction

Nowadays, air pollution become the most serious problem in this world. Industrial
activities and transportation are the major source of the air pollution. The pollution contains
particulate matter which consists of liquid or solid particles. Particulate matter may also include
common irritants such as smoke and dust which can cause respiratory problems. Therefore, in this
experiment, is mainly focus on techniques of removing the particles which is using spray chamber.
The objective of the experiment is to determine the efficiency of the spray chamber to remove the
pollutants in gas stream which replaced by sand for experimental purposes. The experiment are
divided into two parts. The first part is to determine the effect of droplet size upon separation
efficiency of the spray chamber unit, by using different nozzle size. Meanwhile, the second part of
experiment is to determine the effect of liquid to gas ratio (L/G) upon separation efficiency of the
spray chamber unit.

A spray chamber is a straightforward low energy scrubber. In a spray chamber, particulates

are introduced into the chamber and when it gets in contact with water droplets, it gets damp and
tend to move downwards due to gravity. The droplet size depends on the size of the nozzle and the
affects the efficiency of the dust being removed. A spray chamber can be installed either
horizontally or vertically. In our experiment, we have used a vertical spray chamber where sand
which is assumes as the gas stream flows through the chamber and gets in contact with the water
droplets. Once the sand gets attached to the water droplets, it becomes heavier and starts to flow
downwards due to gravity. The sand is the collected at the bottom and was flushed out.
LITERATURE REVIEW

A spray chamber is the simplest form of particulate wet scrubber that is used widely in air
pollution control pollution devices by means of particulate monitoring (Lukas, 2004). Particulate
wet scrubbers work by using liquid droplets (water) to capture particles from the gas stream which
will subsequently be separated. The operating principle behind the wet scrubber design relies
heavily on the inertia of the particle and droplet to act as the driving force to transfer particles from
the gas to liquid stream. Water droplets collect particles from the gas stream by several collection
mechanisms, mainly, impaction for the case of the spray chamber. Particles with enough inertia
(greater mass) are more likely to maintain its forward motion and hit the droplet thus allowing
impaction to take place (Mussatti, 2002).

In order to achieve a more effective particle capture in spray chamber scrubbers, the factors
that should be taken into consideration are the size of water droplets, the energy of the system and
the relative velocity between the particles and water droplets. Particle capture is significantly
enhanced with smaller size of water droplets, higher energy systems as well as a high relative
velocity between particles and water droplets. Spray chamber scrubbers consists of spray nozzles
that generate tiny water droplets that act as collection targets for the particles (Mussatti, 2002). In
this experiment the size of water droplets are varied by using different nozzles. Hence, the smaller
the size of the water droplets, the denser they are as well which in turn improves their ability to
capture smaller particulates. On the other hand, higher energy systems also promotes the efficiency
of particle capture as energy is required to generate the tiny droplets. When the particles travel
faster in comparison to the liquid droplets, a high relative velocity is said to be achieved between
the two which in turn improves particle collection.

The collection efficiency, η of a spray chamber scrubber can be determined by using

Equation 1 shown below. The weight of the sample (particles) are collected at the end of the
experiment and subsequently weighed. The higher the weight of the sample at the end, the greater
the collection efficiency η, of the spray chamber scrubber.

………………. Equation 1
 As for the overall particle efficiency, ηo of a spray chamber, the Kleinschmidt equation is
employed as shown in Equation 2. Kleinschmidt’s equation relates the overall collection efficiency
to the spray chamber scrubber’s operating parameters (spray liquid flow rate L, the gas flow rate
G, the droplet diameter Dd, the distance the drop travels with respect to the gas R, and the single
droplet particle collection efficiency η drop).

………………. Equation 2

The Kleinschmidt equation also relates the overall collection efficiency to the fraction of
gas swept by the water droplets f (shown in Equation 3). A greater magnitude of f can be achieved
by using a larger spray scrubber as it has a a higher particle collection efficiency (Washington
Education , 2009). This occurs due to the greater distance the droplets have to travel leading them
to remain in the gas stream for a longer period of time.

………………Equation 3

The pressure drop across the spray scrubber is one of the factors affecting its separation
efficiency. The overall pressure is expressed in terms of the pressure losses (friction and local
resistance) in the spray scrubber in Equation 4. The governing principle behind this equation is the
principle of superposition of losses which states that the sum of each individual stimulus (all
responses) is equal to the net response resulting from two or more stimuli.

………………………………Equation 4
Methodology

Experiment A: To study the effect of droplet size upon separation efficiency

i. Initially, all valves are closed except for valve V9 and the centrifugal water pump, P1
was switched on.
ii. Isolation valve V1 with a particle size depending on the nozzle to be tested is opened.
iii. Valve V9 is closed to allow the water level inside the spray chamber to increase until
its desired level. Once so, the water height is maintained by adjusting valve V9.
iv. The centrifugal air blower is switched on and its frequency is fixed at 20.0 Hz.
v. 300 g of (300 µm) of sand is poured into the feed vessel.
vi. Once all the sand has entered the air stream, wait for 2 minutes before switching off
the centrifugal water pump, P1 and centrifugal air blower.
vii. Valve V9 is slowly opened to allow the dust-laden water in the spray chamber to flow
down by gravity to the dust collecting bucket.
viii. The bucket is taken out carefully so as to avoid any dust sample from spilling. Then,
the dust is transferred to a suitable oven tray and is heated in an oven at 200oC for 2
hours until the sample becomes sufficiently dry.
ix. The collection efficiency is determined.
x. Repeat steps ii-x by using isolation valve V3 and V4 with particle size of 130 µm, 1000
µm and 190 µm respectively.

Experiment B: To study the effect of liquid to gas ratio (L/G) upon separation efficiency.

i. Initially, all valves are closed except for valve V9 and the centrifugal water pump, P1 was
switched on.
ii. For the first test, nozzle N5 (190 µm) was used.
iii. Appropriate isolation valve was opened.
iv. Valve V9 is closed to allow the water level inside the spray chamber to increase until its
desired level. Once so, the water height is maintained by adjusting valve V9.
v. The centrifugal air blower is switched on and its frequency is fixed at 20.0 Hz.
vi. 300 g of (300 µm) of sand is poured into the feed vessel.
vii. Once all the sand has entered the air stream, wait for 2 minutes before switching off the
centrifugal water pump, P1 and centrifugal air blower.
viii. Valve V9 is slowly opened to allow the dust-laden water in the spray chamber to flow
down by gravity to the dust collecting bucket.
ix. The bucket is taken out carefully so as to avoid any dust sample from spilling. Then, the
dust is transferred to a suitable oven tray and is heated in an oven at 200oC for 2 hours
until the sample becomes sufficiently dry.
x. The collection efficiency is determined.
xi. Repeat steps ii-x by using frequency of 27.5 Hz and 42.5Hz for the centrifugal air blower.
Results and Discussion

Experiment A: To study the effect of droplet size upon separation efficiency

The effect of droplet size is understood based on the separation efficiency in the first part of the
experiment. Different sizes of nozzle like 1000m, 290m and 130m is used as the manipulative
variable while the air blower frequency at 20Hz and 200g of sample is kept at constant throughout
the experiment. The weight of the sand collected is determined after being dried in the oven at
2000oC for approximately 2 hours.

Raw data is collected and used to find separation efficiency. The following graph demonstrates the
relationship between the droplet size and the separation efficiency.

Separation Efficiency against Droplet Size

95.50
Separation Efficiency (%)

95.00 94.98

94.50
94.30
94.00 y = -0.0024x + 95.156
R² = 0.9816
93.50

93.00
92.80
92.50
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200
Droplet size (m)

Figure 1 Graph of separation efficiency against droplet size

Separation efficiency is the weight of sand collected divided by the weight of the sand loaded.
Based on the graph above, it is obvious that separation efficiency is inversely proportional to the
droplet size. Therefore, the separation efficiency decreases gradually when the droplet size
increase. The nozzle with 1000m has the lowest efficiency with 92.80%, followed by the nozzle
with 290m with 94.30% and nozzle with 130m with 94.98%. The smaller size nozzle resulted
better efficiency and biggest size droplet is less efficiency. The smaller droplets have maximum
surface area creating higher chances for the sample (sand) to make contact with the water. The
flowrate also influences the efficiency of the spray chamber collection. The flowrate of the water
works with the size of the nozzle. The higher the flowrate, the higher will be the efficiency. Thus,
we can conclude that the separation efficiency is influenced directly by increase in the relative
velocity and a decrease in liquid droplet size.

Experiment B: To study the effect of liquid to gas ratio (L/G) upon separation efficiency

This time around, blower frequency is selected to the manipulated variable with the values of
20Hz, 30Hz and 40Hz. The nozzle size is kept constant at 290m and 200g of sample (sand) is
used. The weight of the sand collected is determined after being dried in the oven at 2000oC for
approximately 2 hours.

The graph below shows the relationship between the separation efficiency and blower frequency.

Separation Frequency against Blower Frequency

99.00
97.95
98.00 y = 0.2575x + 87.942
Separation Efficiency (%)

R² = 0.9629
97.00 96.25
96.00

95.00

94.00
92.80
93.00

92.00
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Blower Frequency (Hz)

Figure 2 Graph of separation efficiency against blower frequency

The liquid to gas ratio is the ratio between the liquid flow that is used for the collection of the
particles to the gas flow rate that is being treated. It is found that the separation frequency is directly
proportional to the blower frequency. The separation frequency increases as the blower frequency
increase which is due to the gas velocity increase. As observed, the efficiency with the 40Hz is the
highest with the efficiency of 97.95% compared to 30Hz and 20Hz. The liquid to gas ratio
decreases while the collision between the sand particles and liquid droplet increase with a higher
air velocity. More sand particles are brought to the bottom of the chamber after being impacted by
the liquid droplets. The higher the blower frequency, the greater the impaction rate resulting in
more liquid droplet collision with the sand particle which directly increases the separation
efficiency.
Conclusion

In experiment part A, the collection efficiency was being studied with different nozzle sizes. It is
shown that as the nozzle size decrease, the separation efficiency increases. The highest collection
percentage would be from 130 mm droplet size while droplet size of 1000mm gives the lowest
percentage of separation efficiency.
Meanwhile for experiment in part B, the aim is to investigate the relationship between
blower frequency and the separation efficiency. It is found that as the blower frequency increase,
the separation efficiency also increase. This is due to the increasing velocity of gas, making the
collision frequency between the sand and water droplet become higher, hence more dust trapped
in the chamber.
Overall, all the objectives of the experiment are successfully achieved.

Errors and Recommendation

In this experiment, there are some errors and weaknesses that exist that might have affected the
overall result. These errors need to be minimized by taking appropriate measures so that the results
remain valid and accurate. Some of the errors that has been identified are as follow:
1. Error: Due to the wet surface inside the chamber, some of the sands stick to the inside
wall.
Recommendation: For every repetition, the inside chamber should be cleaned by
pumping the water inside the spray chamber.
2. Error: There are some of wet sand left in the bucket during the transfer process from the
bucket to the oven tray.
Recommendation: The average mass of sand needs to be calculate to get more accurate
and precise data. This means the experiment should be repeated by several number of
times.
3. Error: The liquid velocity display in the control panel is malfunction during the
experiment.
Recommendation: Before experiment, all the instruments should be checked to make
sure that everything is in good working condition. Frequent maintenance should be
carried out.
Appendix

Tabulation of data
Table 1 Data collected for Experiment A

Droplet Blower Weight of sand Weigth of Weight of tray + Weight of sand Separation
size (m) Frequency (Hz) loaded (g) tray (g) sand collected (g) collected (g) Efficiency (%)
1000 200 271.30 456.90 185.60 92.80
290 20 200 76.80 265.40 188.60 94.30
130 200 90.25 280.20 189.95 94.98

Table 2 Data collected for Experiment B

Droplet Blower Weight of sand Weigth of Weight of tray + Weight of sand Separation
size (m) Frequency (Hz) loaded (g) tray (g) sand collected (g) collected (g) Efficiency (%)
20 200 79.80 265.40 185.60 92.80
290 30 200 108.75 301.24 192.49 96.25
40 200 266.40 462.30 195.90 97.95

Calculations
1. To determine the weight of sand collected
Weight of sand collected = B-A

where, A = the weight of tray, g

B = the weight of tray + sand collected, g

Sample calculation
The values for A and B are 271.30g and 456.90g respectively. Thus, the weight of sand
collected is:

Weight of sand collected = 456.90g – 271.30g = 185.60g

2. To determine the separation efficiency

𝑊𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑
Separation efficiency,  = x 100%
𝑊𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑙𝑜𝑎𝑑𝑒𝑑

Sample calculation
The weight of sand collected, and the weight of sand loaded are 186.60g and 200g
respectively.
Thus, the separation efficiency is:

185.60𝑔
Separation efficiency,  = x 100% = 92.80%
200𝑔
References

Lukas, M. J. (2004). Droplet Charging for Wet Scrubbers. Journal of the Air & Waste

Management Association, 54(1), 3-7.

Mussatti, D. (2002, July 15). United States Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved from

Wet Scrubbers for Particulate Matter: https://www3.epa.gov/ttn/catc/dir1/cs6ch2.pdf

Washington Education . (2009). Retrieved from Control of Particulate Air Pollutant Emissions:

http://courses.washington.edu/cee490/Kleinschmidt.pdf