Ultrasonic Power to Enhance Limestone Dissolution in the Wet Flue Gas Desulfurization Process. Modeling and Results from Stepwise Titration Experiments
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Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Åbo Akademi University, Biskopsgatan 8, 20500 Turku, Finland
2
Laboratory of Industrial Physics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Turku, FI-20014 Turku, Finland
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
ChemEngineering 2018, 2(4), 53; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemengineering2040053
Received: 26 September 2018 / Revised: 24 October 2018 / Accepted: 29 October 2018 / Published: 6 November 2018
The goal of this work is to assess the application of ultrasonic power to the reactive dissolution of limestone particles in an acidic environment; this would represent a novel method for improving wet Flue Gas Desulfurization industrial systems. In this study a stepwise titration method is utilized; experiments were done by using different particle size distributions with and without the application of ultrasound. The use of ultrasonic power sensibly affected the reaction rate of limestone and its dissolution; a major difference could be observed when samples from the Wolica region in Poland were studied. In this case, the overall dissolution rate was found to increase by more than 70%. The reactive dissolution of limestone does not follow the same mathematical model when sonication is in effect; in this case, an extra Ultrasonic Enhancement Constant was introduced. It was demonstrated that the dissolution is proportional to an Effective Reaction Surface and, therefore, surface interactions should also be taken into consideration. For this purpose, a study is presented here on the Z-potential and electrophoretic mobility of limestone samples measured in aqueous dispersions by means of Laser Doppler Micro-Electrophoresis.
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Keywords:
limestone dissolution; flue gas desulfurization; mathematical modeling; Z-potential; process design options
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MDPI and ACS Style
De Blasio, C.; Carletti, C.; Salonen, J.; Björklund-Sänkiaho, M. Ultrasonic Power to Enhance Limestone Dissolution in the Wet Flue Gas Desulfurization Process. Modeling and Results from Stepwise Titration Experiments. ChemEngineering 2018, 2, 53.
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