ABSTRACT

How do scrubbers work? To answer this question, we need only look to a critical part of Earth’s natural pollution control system: how rain cleans the lower atmosphere. Obviously, this is most evidenced by the freshness of the air following a rainstorm. The simplicity of spraying water into a gas stream to remove a relatively high percentage of contaminants has contributed to scrubbers’ extensive use within industry since the early 1900s. Heumann and Subramania (1997) point out that “most pollution control problems are solved by the selection of equipment based upon two simple questions…(1) will the equipment meet the pollution control requirements? and (2) which selection will cost the least?”