What is a Gas Scrubber?
A gas scrubber is an advanced air pollution control system that uses a liquid or solid medium to capture and neutralize pollutants and harmful components from industrial exhaust streams. It is commonly used in industries that generate flue gas containing harmful substances such as sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), Clorine, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Why Choose a Gas Scrubber?
Gas scrubbers are essential for industries that emit acidic gases, fine particulate matter, and volatile compounds. They are commonly found in chemical manufacturing, semiconductor production, plastics processing, and food production facilities, where effective emission control is critical for environmental compliance and workplace safety.
Efficient Gas Scrubbing: Captures and neutralizes acid gases and particulate matter.
Compact System Design: Flue gas cooling reduces the size of equipment.
Explosion Safety: Minimizes risk in combustible gas environments due to using a scrubbing liquid.
Odor Removal: In certain applications, Odors are also removed due to the removal of specific components.
Custom Solutions: As a gas scrubber supplier, we design solutions tailored to your site-specific needs.
Types of Wet Scrubbers
Different industries require specific scrubber designs based on their emissions. The most common types include:
Chemical Scrubbers: Use a chemical reagent to absorb and neutralize pollutants.
Dry Scrubbers: Utilize solid materials to capture contaminants without using liquids. Some Electrostatic Precipitators are can also be called Dry Scrubbers.
Wet Scrubbers: Employ a liquid solution to trap particulates and gases from flue gas streams. Most other scrubbers are also ‘Wet Scrubbers’.
Venturi Scrubbers: Designed for removing fine particulate matter using high-velocity gas and liquid interactions. The converging section or ‘throat’ creates a higher speed of the gas and liquid combined resulting in fine water droplets, increasing the surface.
Packed Bed Scrubbers: Ideal for acid gas absorption and neutralization.
Electrostatic Precipitator: Frequently used in the chemicals industry. Technically not really a scrubber as it uses electrostatic forces to charge and collect fine particles.
Various types of scrubbers can also be made compable. Depending on the solid particles or combination of components that need to be handled, a multi-stage scrubbing system can be designed. Sometimes also a Cyclone Separator is placed before a scrubber to extract larger particles.
Advantages & Disadvantages of Gas Scrubbers
When considering pollution control technologies, Gas scrubbers offer a range of advantages and disadvantages. They are widely used in many industries to reduce harmful emissions. However, like any system, gas scrubbers come with trade-offs.
Advantages:
Handles High Temperatures & Moisture: Suitable for high-temperature flue gas applications.
Compact & Space-Efficient: Cooling effect reduces the overall system footprint.
Removes Both Gases & Particles: Provides dual air pollution control functionality.
Neutralizes Corrosive Gases: Protects downstream equipment.
Cost Effective: Lower Operational Costs due to less filter replacements and lower energy costs compared to RTO’s.
Explosion Safety Benefits: Reduces fire and explosion risks in volatile gas environments.
Disandvantages:
Potential Corrosion: Requires corrosion-resistant materials.
Waste Management: Liquid-based scrubbers generate slurry waste.
Higher Energy Usage: Gas scrubbers require more power compared to dry scrubbers or RTOs.
Proven Process: A Clear 4-Step Plan
Our proven approach consists of advising, designing, building and implementing tailor-made solutions:
Pre-Engineering Study
The Pre-Engineering Study is the first step in JOA Air Solutions’ process. It assesses whether a gas scrubber is the optimal solution for emission control, energy efficiency, and safety by utilizing data collection and air technical modelling, resulting in a tailored concept design and budget quotation.
Design & Engineering
System Realization
Ready to optimize? Book a meeting with a Specialist
Start with a Pre-Engineering Study and learn how our proven process can enhance your performance, safety, and compliance. Let us help you design, realize, and maintain the perfect solution tailored to your needs for air filtration, energy recovery and more.
After implementation, we take care of ‘Preventive Maintenance’, ‘Remote Monitoring’ and Service & Spare Parts so that your Gas Scrubber System continues to perform optimally over time.
Clients That Trust JOA
Leading manufacturers, chemical plants, and food processing companies rely on custom Gas scrubber solutions to achieve environmental compliance and operational efficiency at the same time. We are proud to work with a wide range of the largest industrial manufacturers with the most complex production processes, worldwide.
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Gas Scrubber FAQ
A gas scrubber is an industrial air pollution control system designed to remove contaminants from flue gas using chemical or physical methods.
Gas scrubbers capture airborne pollutants by passing exhaust gases through a liquid or solid medium, where contaminants are absorbed or neutralized. The scrubbing liquid moves in a counter-flow so the liquid and the gas stream move in opposite directions. This setup is particularly beneficial with irregular compounds or peak emissions. There are alos cross-current and co-current scrubbers, all with its own benefits.
There are generally 3 phases in the scrubbing process: Absorption, droplet collection and recirculation (tank with pump). Learn more in our detailed guide on how does a gas scrubber work.
Understanding the correct terminology for different types of scrubbers can be challenging. To differentiate them, we consider specific criteria. A gas scrubber is a broad term encompassing both wet and dry scrubbing technologies. A chemical scrubber, on the other hand, specifically uses chemicals as a scrubbing liquid, though some also define it as a wet scrubber designed to handle chemical particles in flue gases.
A wet scrubber relies on a liquid medium, typically water, to capture gases and particulates. In contrast, a dry scrubber removes pollutants using dry absorbents or catalysts without the use of water.
In general, the tailor-made approach of JOA leads to a slightly higher investment initially. Then, due to improved operations, operational costs are reduced significantly. Especially when Heat Recovery is also involved, we are sometimes able to reach a Return on Investment within 2,5 years, depending on relative humidity and gas prices.
