Organic Solvents (Water-Soluble)

Typical compounds are: Methanol, Ethanol, Isopropanol, Butanol, Acetone, Formaldehyde, etc.

Water soluble organics such as listed above and others with similar characteristics are effectively scrubbed utilizing counter current packed tower technology. Due to the fact that these compounds are very soluble to infinitely soluble in water, water is used for scrubbing purposes. However, since these compounds generally exhibit relatively high vapor pressures in aqueous solution, it is usually necessary to scrub with water on a once-through basis rather than recycling the aqueous solution.

There are exceptions to this general rule (where extremely cold water is available and/or where the organic is in a highly concentrated in the gas stream) but they are rare. The counter current packed tower approach optimizes the mass transfer driving force for absorption of the organic in the water. The exit gas containing the lowest levels of the contaminant is in contact with the “clean” water and the exiting aqueous solution with the highest levels of contaminant is in contact with the inlet gas stream where the contaminant level is relatively high.

Croll-Reynolds has supplied such scrubbers primarily to the Pharmaceutical Industry for such applications as Tablet Forming but also to Chemical and Specialty Chemical facilities for process off-gas streams and storage tank venting.

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