Absorption of SO2 with calcium-based solution in a rotating packed bed

In this work, the absorption performance of SO2 into calcium-based solution was studied in a rotating packed bed (RPB). Experiments were carried out to examine the effect of various operating parameters on the desulfurization efficiency, such as absorbent pH value, gravity level of RPB, gas-liquid ratio, gas treatment amount and inlet SO2 concentration. It was found that the SO2 removal efficiency increased with the increasing of absorbent pH value and RPB gravity level, and decreased with the increasing of the gas-liquid ratio and inlet SO2 concentration. SO2 removal efficiency was about 88% for the metal packing and 82% for the plastic packing under the optimal operating conditions when the SO2 inlet concentration was 900 mg/m3. Moreover, volumetric mass transfer coefficient (KGa) in RPB of this absorption process was calculated. It was found that KGa was 7.83–19.34 s−1 in RPB, almost 1 order of magnitude higher than that in packed tower and impinging stream gas-liquid reactor.