AIR POLLUTIONCONTROL EQUIPMENT

CALCULATIONS

AIR POLLUTIONCONTROL EQUIPMENT

CALCULATIONS

Louis Theodore

An Introduction byHumberto Bravo Alvarez

Copyright # 2008 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New JerseyPublished simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Theodore, Louis.Air pollution control equipment/Louis Theodore.

p. cm.ISBN 978-0-470-20967-7 (cloth)

1. Air—Purification—Equipment and supplies. I. Title.TD889.T49 2008628.503—dc22 2007032133

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

TO

BILL O’REILLYa true patriot

ANDTHE O’REILLY FACTOR

for battling the enemy from withinand

helping protect/represent the silent majority

CONTENTS

PREFACE xi

INTRODUCTION 1

1 AIR POLLUTION HISTORY 9

2 AIR POLLUTION REGULATORY FRAMEWORK 15

2.1 Introduction 152.2 The Regulatory System 162.3 Laws and Regulations: The Differences 172.4 The Clean Air Act 192.5 Provisions Relating to Enforcement 252.6 Closing Comments and Recent Developments 26

3 FUNDAMENTALS: GASES 27

3.1 Introduction 273.2 Measurement Fundamentals 273.3 Chemical and Physical Properties 293.4 Ideal Gas Law 373.5 Phase Equilibrium 413.6 Conservation Laws 42Problems 44

4 INCINERATORS 69

4.1 Introduction 694.2 Design and Performance Equations 794.3 Operation and Maintenance, and Improving Performance 84

Problems 86

5 ABSORBERS 127

5.1 Introduction 1275.2 Design and Performance Equations 1315.3 Operation and Maintenance, and Improving Performance 142

Problems 143

vii

6 ADSORBERS 185

6.1 Introduction 1856.2 Design and Performance Equations 1946.3 Operation and Maintenance, and Improving Performance 201

Problems 202

7 FUNDAMENTALS: PARTICULATES 247

7.1 Introduction 2477.2 Particle Collection Mechanisms 2497.3 Fluid–Particle Dynamics 2527.4 Particle Sizing and Measurement Methods 2607.5 Particle Size Distribution 2627.6 Collection Efficiency 267

Problems 271

8 GRAVITY SETTLING CHAMBERS 315

8.1 Introduction 3158.2 Design and Performance Equations 3198.3 Operation and Maintenance, and Improving Performance 324

Problems 325

9 CYCLONES 361

9.1 Introduction 3619.2 Design and Performance Equations 3679.3 Operation and Maintenance, and Improving Performance 374

Problems 376

10 ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATORS 399

10.1 Introduction 39910.2 Design and Performance Equations 40610.3 Operation and Maintenance, and Improving Performance 410

Problems 415

11 VENTURI SCRUBBERS 451

11.1 Introduction 45111.2 Design and Performance Equations 45511.3 Operation and Maintenance, and Improving Performance 459

Problems 462

CONTENTSviii

12 BAGHOUSES 503

12.1 Introduction 50312.2 Design and Performance Equations 50612.3 Operation and Maintenance, and Improving Performance 511

Problems 514

APPENDIX A HYBRID SYSTEMS 549

A.1 Introduction 549A.2 Wet Electrostatic Precipitators 550A.3 Ionizing Wet Scrubbers 550A.4 Dry Scrubbers 551A.5 Electrostatically Augmented Fabric Filtration 552

APPENDIX B SI UNITS 555

B.1 The Metric System 555B.2 The SI System 557B.3 SI Multiples and Prefixes 557B.4 Conversion Constants (SI) 558

APPENDIX C EQUIPMENT COST MODEL 563

INDEX 567

NOTE

Additional problems for Chapters 3–12 are available for all readers at www.wiley.com.The problems may be used for homework purposes. Solutions to these problems plus sixexams (three for each year or semester) are available to those who adopt the text forinstructional purposes. Visit www.wiley.com and follow links for this title for details.

CONTENTS ix

PREFACE

I fear the Greeks, even when bearing gifts.—Virgil (70–19 B.C.), Aeneid, Book II

In the last four decades, the technical community has expanded its responsibilities tosociety to include the environment, with particular emphasis on air pollution fromindustrial sources. Increasing numbers of engineers, technicians, and maintenancepersonnel are being confronted with problems in this most important area. The environ-mental engineer and scientist of today and tomorrow must develop a proficiency and animproved understanding of air pollution control equipment in order to cope with thesechallenges.

This book serves two purposes. It may be used as a textbook for engineering stu-dents in an air pollution course. It may also be used as a reference book for practicingengineers, scientists, and technicians involved with air pollution control equipment.For this audience, it is assumed that the reader has already taken basic courses inphysics and chemistry, and should have a minimum background in mathematicsthrough calculus. The author’s aim is to offer the reader the fundamentals of air pollutioncontrol equipment with appropriate practical applications and to provide an introductionto design principles. The reader is encouraged through references to continue his or herown development beyond the scope of the presented material.

As is usually the case in preparing any text, the question of what to include and whatto omit has been particularly difficult. However, the problems and solutions in this bookattempt to address calculations common to both the science and engineering professions.The book provides the reader with nearly 500 solved problems in the air pollutioncontrol equipment field. Of the 12 chapters, 4 are concerned with gaseous control equip-ment and 6 with airborne particulate pollutants. The interrelationship between bothclasses of pollutants is emphasized in many of the chapters, Each chapter containsa number of problems, with each set containing anywhere from 30 to 50 problemsand solutions.

As indicated above, the book is essentially divided into two major parts: air pol-lution control equipment for gaseous pollutants (Chapters 3–6), and control equipmentfor particulate pollutants (Chapters 7–12). Following two introductory chapters, the nextfour chapters examine control equipment for gaseous pollutants, including incineration,absorption, and adsorption. The last six chapters are devoted to gravity settlers, cyclones,electrostatic precipitators, scrubbers, and baghouses. Each chapter contains a short intro-duction to the control device, which is followed by problems dealing with performanceequations, operation and maintenance, and recent developments. The Appendix containswriteups on hybrid systems, the SI system (including conversion constants), and a costequipment model.

This project was a unique undertaking. Rather than prepare a textbook in the usualformat—essay material, illustrative examples, nomenclature, bibliography, problems,

xi

and so on—the author considered writing a calculations book that could be used as aself-teaching aid. One of the key features of this book is that the solutions to the pro-blems are presented in a near stand-alone manner. Throughout the book, theproblems are laid out in such a way as to develop the reader’s understanding of thecontrol device in question; each problem contains a title, problem statement and data,and the solution, with the more difficult problems located at or near the end of eachchapter set. (Additional problems and solutions are available at a Website for allreaders, but particularly for classroom/training purposes.) Thus, this book offersmaterial not only to individuals with limited technical background but also to thosewith extensive industrial experience. As such, this book can be used as a text ineither a general environmental and engineering science course and (perhaps primarily)as a training tool for industry.

Knowledge of the information developed and presented in the various chapters isessential not only to the design and selection of industrial control equipment for atmos-pheric pollutants but also to their proper operation and maintenance. It will enable thereader to obtain a better understanding of both the equipment itself and those factorsaffecting equipment performance.

Hopefully, the text is simple, clear, to the point, and imparts a basic understandingof the theory and mechanics of the calculations and applications. It is also hoped that ameticulously accurate, articulate, and practical writing style has helped masterthe difficult task of explaining what was once a very complicated subject matter in away that is easily understood. The author feels that this delineates this text fromothers in this field.

The author cannot claim sole authorship to all the problems and material in thisbook. The present book has evolved from a host of sources, including notes, homeworkproblems, and exam problems prepared by J. Jeris for graduate environmental engineer-ing courses; notes, homework problems, and exam problems prepared by L. Theodorefor several chemical and environmental engineering graduate and undergraduatecourses; problems and solutions drawn (with permission) from numerous TheodoreTutorials; and, problems and solutions developed by faculty participants duringNational Science Foundation (NSF) Undergraduate Faculty Enhancement Program(UFEP) workshops.

During the preparation of this book, the author was ably assisted in many ways by anumber of graduate students in Manhattan College’s Chemical Engineering Master’sProgram. These students, particularly Agogho Pedro and Alex Santos, contributedmuch time and energy researching and classroom testing various problems in the book.

My sincere thanks go to Anna Daversa, Andrea Paciga, and Kevin Singer for theirinvaluable help and assistance in proofing the manuscript.

LOUIS THEODORE

April 2008

PREFACExii