MULTI-STAGED WET SCRUBBER IN A SINGLE VESSEL FOR A SOLIDS HANDLING FACILITY

This paper discusses how an existing industrial vessel was redesigned to treat odor emissions fromone of the largest solids handling facilities in the northeast. A private sludge drying facility was able to obtain a used 12-foot diameter, 65-foot high industrial tower at a reasonable cost, so this facility asked Tighe and Bond and Tech Environmental to examine whether this tower could properly treat the odors from the sludge tipping area. Prior to this modification, the facility was pulling all odors from the tipping area and the sludge drying room into the dryers. This air was used as combustion air for the drying process and the RTOs.The sludge drying facility was considering adding more recirculation air into the dryers to save energy and provide better destruction of VOCs. This increased recirculation would mean less capacity for odor control, so the possibility of redirecting the air from the tipping area to a new odor control system was explored.Odor sampling data collected suggested that ammonia and a number of reduced sulfur compounds wouldrequire treatment to reduce odor potential off-site. It was clear that a multistage solution wouldbe required to satisfy the odor control requirements. A multistage scrubber design was developedwithin the existing tower to address odor control. The tower's existing packing was examined and it was determined that there was insufficient packing to meet odor control requirements. This paperdiscusses how the tower was converted to a multistage tower with two separate sumps with minimal nozzle penetration modifications.