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Development of Spray-Type Acid Wet Scrubbers for Recovery of Ammonia Emissions from Animal Facilities

Hadlocon, Lara Jane Sebuc
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1388716963

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering.
Ammonia (NH3) is a pungent, colorless gas that is considered an air quality concern. The expansion of AFOs in the United States significantly increases NH3 emission levels that largely affect air quality inside the barns, within the vicinity of animal operations, and of the ambient air. Among the existing technologies, acid wet scrubbers are promising due to its simple design, low pressure drop advantage on fans, and the additional benefit of generating nitrogen fertilizer simultaneously. In this study, a modular spray-type wet scrubber was developed under laboratory conditions by optimizing its design, operating, and environmental parameters. Full-scale scrubbers were developed for long-term field application at a commercial poultry manure composting facility and a deep-pit swine facility. The effluents generated were characterized for its N fertilizer value that would help assess the economic feasibility of the process. The overall scrubber efficiency was then modeled using fundamental understanding of the process to be able to describe the underlying process of gas absorption in an acid spray scrubber. The optimized scrubber module called the Spray Scrubber Module (SSM) was optimized for its nozzle type, scrubber column size and geometry, and number of stages of the spray scrubber module. Effects of operating parameters such as acid concentration, superficial air velocity, retention time, and inlet NH3 concentration were quantified. The SSM was optimized as a hexagonal scrubber column with a diameter of 45.72 cm equipped with 3 stages of PJ40 spray nozzles, spraying 1% (w/v) H2SO4 scrubbing liquid counter-current to an exhaust air stream with superficial gas velocity of 3 to 4 m s-1 equivalent to air retention times of 0.55 to 0.41 s and was able to recover 91% NH3 at an operating liquid pressure of 0.51 MPa and a superficial air velocity of 4 m s-1 for an inlet NH3 concentration of 30 ppmv operated in single stage of spray nozzle. The optimized SSM was scaled up, resulting to a full-scale acid wet scrubber for a 1.3 m exhaust fan of a poultry manure composting facility. This scrubber, operated with 15 SSMs was able to reduce NH3 by 76% with mean inlet NH3 concentration of 92 ppmv. Another scrubber with a simpler design, with a round geometry and a diameter of 35.56 cm was developed for the swine facility. The scrubber was evaluated to reduce NH3 by 88% with inlet NH3 concentration of 16 ppmv. Characterization study showed that the effluent could reach up to 30% (w/v) ammonium sulfate, which was highly comparable to commercial fertilizers with more economical benefits to poultry application. The process of gas absorption using the performance data gathered was investigated and a performance model was developed to describe scrubber performance as a function of important scrubber parameters. This study developed an NH3 mitigation technology in the form of acid spray scrubbers for applications on animal feeding operations in the U. S. This study also provided an assessment of both technical and economic feasibility on adopting scrubber technology for NH3 abatement.
Lingying Zhao (Advisor)
230 p.
Agricultural Engineering; Agriculture; Engineering; Environmental Engineering
acid spray scrubber, ammonia, ammonia emissions, ammonia absorption, nitrogen fertilizer, wet scrubber, spray scrubber module, performance model

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Hadlocon, L. J. S. (2014). Development of Spray-Type Acid Wet Scrubbers for Recovery of Ammonia Emissions from Animal Facilities [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1388716963

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hadlocon, Lara Jane. Development of Spray-Type Acid Wet Scrubbers for Recovery of Ammonia Emissions from Animal Facilities. 2014. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1388716963.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hadlocon, Lara Jane. "Development of Spray-Type Acid Wet Scrubbers for Recovery of Ammonia Emissions from Animal Facilities." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1388716963

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.