Wet scrubber - what happens if you continue to re-circulate a scrubbing liquid?

[RistEcho]

I have a general question about wet bed scrubber (packed bed scrubber).

If I re-circulate a scrubbing liquid (e.g. water) to capture a pollutant (e.g. a chemical compound) from a gas stream, I understand that the concentration of that chemical will accumulate in the scrubbing liquid.

At what point will the re-circulated scrubbing liquid stop absorbing the chemical pollutant, assuming no blowdown and no fresh water make-up?

If the chemical has a very low Henry constant and is completely miscible in water, then wouldn’t I be able to form a high (say, >80% or >90%) concentration solution of the chemical via this method?

Thank you for entertaining my thought experiment.

 

[pierreick]

Hi,
Probably good for you to review this document.
If you don't add make up water, the level of water in the sump will decrease because the gas leaving the tower is saturated. You will damage the pump soon or later.
Other consequences, viscosity, charge of pollutant, superficial tension will increase, and Foam may appear thus will affect the mass transfer.
By the way, check the validity of your model using Henry's law.

Good luck.
Pierre

 

[shvet]

water will be completely lost with a gas or will be substituted by components of a gas having lower vapor pressure than water has

 

[georgeverghese]

Agreed, it will stop absorbing when the recirc. absorbent liquid concentration reaches the Henry's Law limit at this operating temp