Plate Scrubber Unit

An impingement-plate scrubber is a vertical chamber with plates mounted horizontally inside a hollow shell. Impingement-plate scrubbers operate as countercurrent particulate matter (PM) collection devices. The scrubbing liquid flows down the tower while the gas stream flows upward. Contact between the liquid and the particle-laden gas occur on the plates. The plates are equipped with openings that allow the gas to pass through. Some plates are perforated or slotted. The simplest impingement-plate scrubber is the sieve plate, which has round perforations. In this type of scrubber, the scrubbing liquid flows over the plates and the gas flows up through the holes. The gas velocity prevents the liquid from flowing down through the perforations. Gas-liquid-particle contact is achieved within the froth generated by the gas passing through the liquid layer. Complex plates, such as baffle plates, introduce an additional means of collecting PM. The baffles placed above the plate perforations force the gas to turn before escaping the layer of liquid. While the gas turns to avoid the obstacles, most PM cannot and is collected by impaction on the baffles.