Our lifestyle and the way our industries operate has led to a rise in air pollution. This phenomenon has several negative effects. To highlight a few:

A UN expert has predicted that air pollution can cause around 7 million premature deaths every year.

More than 30000 lives in the United States can be saved by merely reducing the air pollution levels

If China can cut Ozone pollution it can save around 330000 lives by 2050.

Air pollution reportedly speeds up the ageing of the lungs and increases the risk of developing chronic lung diseases.

These effects have put our future in jeopardy. Actions must be taken to curb the effects of air pollution before it’s too late. Several industries can take strong action against air pollution by installing air pollution control systems.

But what are these systems? What do they do? Air pollution control system is an umbrella term. It basically comprises of equipment and systems that are used to eliminate or regulate pollutant emission. These pollutants can be in the form of particulate matter or gas.

One such effective air pollutant control system is scrubbers. It is one of the most commonly used devices to control air pollution. They can remove gases as well as particulates. They are commonly used in exhaust streams. Particulates and gases are removed by scrubbing before letting the emissions out into the atmosphere.

Historically scrubbers were pollution control devices that used liquids. This liquid was used to wash pollutants from the gas stream. Scrubbers have proved highly successful in controlling gas emissions, and have been the go-to choice for controlling air pollution. There are two major classifications of scrubbers: Wet scrubbers and dry scrubbers.

Wet scrubbers

Wet scrubbers are also called wet absorption scrubbers or wet collectors. The purpose of a wet scrubber is to clean air, gases or fuel gases of pollutants and dust particles. The functioning of wet scrubbing involves contact of particulate matter or target compounds with the scrubbing solution. Water is one of the solutions that is used. Sometimes, solutions of reagents are used. These reagents specifically target certain compounds. To improve the removal efficiency of the pollutants, residence time in the scrubber is increased or the surface area of scrubber solution is increased. Wet scrubber can be used for heat recovery as well.

Dry scrubbers

Dry scrubbers are also called dry adsorption scrubbers. They are used to remove acid gases. It injects chemical agents that are dry and neutralizing in nature. These chemicals are injected into the emission stream. This causes the chemicals in the emission stream to undergo a chemical reaction. This chemical reaction neutralizes pollutants or converts them into harmless substances. When the chemical reaction concludes, the spent agents are collected. In some cases collected agents can be reused for future dry scrubbing purposes. Sometimes the spent agents cannot be collected and must be disposed off. Specialists are needed to dispose this scrubbing waste.

Air pollution is a challenge that has posed difficult questions. Pollution control systems like scrubbers may be one of the answers.