• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.134-138
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• 2015

BACKGROUND: In recent years, several researchers have focused on odour control methods to remove the harmful chemicals from chemical accidents and incidents. The present work deals with the system development of the hazardous. METHODS AND RESULTS: For on-site removal of hazardous gaseous materials from chemical accidents, mobile vortex wet scrubber was designed with water vortex process to absorb the gas into the water. The efficiency of the mobile vortex wet scrubber was evaluated using water spray and 25% ammonia solution. The inlet air velocity (gas flow rate) was according to the damper angle installed within the hood and with increase of gas flow rate, consequently the absorption efficiency was markedly decreased. In particular, when 25% ammonia solution was exposed to the hood inlet for 30 min, the water pH within the scrubber was changed from 7 to 12. Interestingly, although the removal efficiency of ammonia gas exhibited approximately 80% for 5 min, its efficiency in 10 min showed the greatest decrease with 18%. Therefore, our results suggest that the ammonia gas may be absorbed with the driving force of scrubbing water in water vortex process of this scrubber. CONCLUSION: When chemical accidents are occurred, the designed compact scrubber may be utilized as effective tool regarding removal of ammonia gas and other volatile organic compounds in the scene of an accident.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.49-56
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• 2018

BACKGROUND: The mobile vortex wet scrubber was developed to remove the harmful chemicals from accidental releases. However, there was a disadvantage that it was limitedly used for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as toluene according to the physicochemical properties. This study compared the removal efficiencies of an improved mobile scrubber on toluene and ammonia by applying diverse adsorption and absorption methods. METHODS AND RESULTS: The removal efficiencies on harmful chemicals were examined using various adsorption and absorption methods of water vortex process (C), phosphoric acid-impregnated activated carbon adsorption (PCA), pH-controlled water (pH 2.5) vortex process absorption with sulfuric acid (SWA) after ammonia exposure, granular activated carbon adsorption (GCA), and activated carbon mat adsorption (CMA) after toluene exposure. As a result, the best removal efficiency was shown in the SWA for ammonia and GCA for toluene. Also, the SWA and GCA methods were compared with different concentration levels. In the case of ammonia exposure (5, 10 and 25%), there was no difference by concentration levels, and the concentration in the outlet gradually increased, with pH change from acid to base. In the case of toluene exposure (50, 75 and 100%), the outlet concentration was higher relative to the exposure concentration in the initial 10 min, but the outlet concentration was remained steady after 10 min. CONCLUSION: The newly improved mobile scrubber was also effective in removing VOCs through adsorption techniques (activated carbon, activated carbon fiber, carbon mat filter etc.), as well as removing acid-base harmful chemicals by neutralization reaction.