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Design and Types of Industrial Wet Scrubbers: A Technical Overview

In industry, wet scrubbers have long proven themselves as reliable and effective systems for cleaning gases from dust, aerosols, and hazardous emissions. These devices are used in metallurgy, chemical production, construction materials manufacturing, the food industry, and other sectors where compliance with sanitary and environmental emission standards is critical. Below, we will examine the operating principle, types, and design features of industrial absorption towers — from simple to complex—taking into account modern engineering requirements and technologies.

Main Tasks

The primary function is to remove solid and liquid contaminants from the gas stream, such as dust, vapors, aerosols, gases, and aggressive compounds. To achieve this, water or a specialized scrubbing liquid is used, which comes into contact with the pollutants, mixes with them, and causes them to settle out. The key criteria for selecting wet cleaning units are their purification efficiency and their ability to operate reliably under challenging technological conditions.

Types of Designs

In industry, there are various types of wet scrubbers that differ in operating principle, phase contact method, and intended application. Among them are spray chambers, dynamic systems, tray-type devices, and others. The choice of design depends on the task at hand: required purification efficiency, air volume, and the characteristics of dust and gases. Various wet scrubber designs provide engineers with a wide range of solutions for tasks of any complexity—from standard models to modular and hybrid systems.
Main Types:

Hollow spray units
Packed-bed systems
Foam cleaning devices
Tray towers
Venturi systems
Tank Vent Equipment

Wet Spray Scrubber — a tower in which the air to be cleaned passes through a chamber containing the scrubbing liquid in the form of a fine mist. The actual capture of contaminants occurs through contact with the liquid droplets generated by high-pressure nozzles. These systems are easy to maintain, perform well with fine dust and volatile aerosols, and demonstrate high efficiency in comprehensive filtration. Wet spray scrubber system designed and produced by us:

TORNADO ST Spray Tower Wet Scrubber

Performance:
600 — 30 000 cfm

TYPHOON FLOW Spark Arrestor

Performance:
up to 6000 cfm

Wet Dust Collector PMT

Performance:
1 700 — 23 500 cfm

Packed-Bed Towers use special packing elements (structural components) that provide intensive phase contact, contributing to effective filtration.

TORNADO RP Vertical Wet Scrubber

Performance:
600 — 24 000 cfm

TORNADO SP Packed Bed Scrubber

Performance:
600 — 30 000 cfm

BOREAS-P3 Horizontal Packed Bed Scrubber

Performance:
100 — 175 000 cfm

A Dynamic Wet Scrubber is characterized by the presence of specific elements or mechanisms that create increased turbulence and thorough mixing of the phases throughout the chamber. This can be achieved using blades, packings, agitators, or other design solutions that ensure uniform and intensive phase contact.

Foam devices with a fluidized bed generate a stable foam in the working zone through which contaminated air passes; the foam increases the contact area and allows the capture of fine particles and aerosols.

Wet Impingement Scrubber (tray tower, plate column) operates on the principle of impact interaction between the contaminated air and the scrubbing liquid on the surface of special elements—trays or grids. This approach improves the removal of dense aerosols and coarse dust fractions, making the device suitable for process emissions with variable composition. Plate wet scrubber uses special trays that increase flow turbulence and enhance the interaction between the gas and liquid phases.

TORNADO FB Fluidized Packed Bed Scrubber

Performance:
100 — 175 000 cfm

TYPHOON Tray Tower Scrubber

Performance:
100 — 175 000 cfm

The Venturi is a device with a constricted middle section, resembling an hourglass in cross-section. Its operation is based on accelerating the gas flow in the narrow section of the pipe, where the scrubbing liquid is sprayed through nozzles to form fine droplets.

Wet Venturi Scrubber

Performance:
100 — 175 000 cfm

TORNADO FB Venturi Packed Bed Scrubber

Performance:
600 — 30 000 cfm

Co-Flow Wet Scrubber operates on the principle of parallel movement of gas and liquid in the same direction, creating more uniform contact. This approach reduces flow resistance (lowering energy consumption for fans), which is important when cleaning large volumes of air. The co-flow principle is especially effective for emissions with high humidity or low solid content, such as those found in the chemical industry.

Tank Vent Scrubber is designed to clean air emitted from tanks containing chemical or hazardous substances. It effectively removes up to 99.9% of contaminants, such as hydrocarbons, ammonia, chlorine, hydrogen sulfide, and other volatile organic compounds (VOCs). They are installed directly on top of process tanks or vessels, providing localized air cleaning at the source of emissions.

“Venturi Tornado-FB” Fluidized Bed Scrubber with a Venturi Tube

Tank Vent Wet Scrubber

CASE STUDY: Application of Venturi Scrubbers in the Mining Industry

Venturi units are effectively used for air cleaning from dust and aerosols across various industries. For example, at one of the largest copper-zinc ore processing facilities in the world, we supplied an extraction system using Venturi. The task was to remove pyrite-containing dust generated during crushing, transportation, and grinding of the ore. Pyrite dust, prone to spontaneous combustion, could lead to prolonged equipment downtime and significant costs for mitigating the consequences.
For a detailed overview of the project and the solutions implemented, please visit the full case study here.

Orientation of the Body

Horizontal Wet Scrubber is installed horizontally relative to the airflow, allowing space savings in industrial workshops and easy integration into the production line with minimal layout modifications. These designs are popular for facilities with limited space, such as food processing and pharmaceutical plants.

Vertical Tower features a gas flow moving strictly upward through a vertically arranged chamber. This configuration ensures stable phase contact and efficient removal of dust and aerosols. Vertical towers are often used where high purification efficiency and compact installation are required.

Horizontal BOREAS

Rotoclone vs Vortex

Rotoclone Wet Scrubber uses centrifugal force and a water film on blades to capture particles. The contaminated airflow is drawn into the device, where heavy dust particles are separated from the stream under the influence of centrifugal force and mixed with the scrubbing liquid. The cleaned gas is then discharged. This approach ensures stable operation even with significant fluctuations in dust load and is often used for emissions containing high concentrations of organic dust.

Rotoclone Wet Dust Collector

Performance:
250 — 6 000 cfm

Vortex Wet Scrubber features a vortex mixing mechanism. Air enters a cylindrical chamber, where intense swirling is created, and the sprayed scrubbing liquid ensures maximum contact with contaminants. This allows them to achieve high capture efficiency for fine pollutants even with minimal liquid volume.

Rotoclone is more compact, often combining ventilation and scrubbing functions, and is preferred for variable dust loads. Vortex is designed to maximize phase contact through vortex flows and is suitable for fine dust and complex aerosols, with efficiency focused on turbulence within the chamber.

Compact Solutions

Basic simple wet scrubber designs are intended for use in low dust conditions or when handling non-aggressive emissions. They are characterized by ease of installation, maintenance, and high reliability for small volumes of contaminated air, but are less efficient than complex systems under high loads.

Ion BOREAS Compact Ion-Exchange Fiber-Bed Scrubber

Applications: Food and beverage production, pharmaceuticals, light chemical processing, laboratories, and small-scale metalworking or woodworking facilities.

Typically, this is a small wet scrubber with a capacity of up to 5,000 m³/h. Usually, such devices consist of hollow towers equipped only with a spray chamber wet scrubber. However, a compact design can also be implemented as a packed-bed unit, depending on the requirements of the technical specifications. Our manufacturing capabilities allow us to produce equipment fully tailored to the individual needs of the client.

BOREAS-P1 Horizontal Wet Scrubber

Performance:
100 — 175 000 cfm

BOREAS-P2 Horizontal Packed Bed Scrubber

Performance:
100 — 175 000 cfm

BOREAS Compact Ion-Exchange Fiber-Bed Scrubber

Performance:
30 000 cfm

Droplet Protection

Modern units are equipped with a wet scrubber demister — a special section where large liquid droplets that have not settled on contaminant particles are captured. The demister prevents moisture carryover with the cleaned gas, reduces loss of scrubbing liquid, and prevents additional humidification of ductwork. Its main features include high separation efficiency for droplets as small as 5 microns, low aerodynamic resistance, corrosion resistance, and the ability to operate at high temperatures.

Without a demister, increased humidity in ducts and ventilation systems may occur.

Body Materials

To increase durability and resistance to aggressive environments, scrubber bodies are made from corrosion-resistant materials.
For example, a fiberglass wet scrubber offers high strength and chemical resistance, being unaffected by most acids and alkalis. Stainless steel bodies are also widely used, providing excellent corrosion resistance and suitability for high-temperature and aggressive environments. Additionally, chambers made of polypropylene and other chemically resistant plastics offer good corrosion resistance while keeping weight low.

Optimal Chemical Wet Scrubber Materials

A PVC wet scrubber is chosen for emissions with relatively low temperatures; these units are lightweight, cost-effective, and resistant to exposure from saturated acid gas vapors.

The optimal material choice depends on the nature of the emissions, air volume, particle content and size, space limitations, and required purification efficiency. For complex projects, engineers must consider not only the primary operating principle but also the specifics of integrating the equipment into the production line — ensuring corrosion protection, stable demister operation, emergency handling, and filtration quality monitoring.

Wet dust collectors remain a versatile and effective solution for reducing hazardous emissions in industrial facilities, providing a high level of safety, flexibility, and compliance with environmental standards. A careful approach to selecting and operating a specific type of unit ensures consistent achievement of air purification goals and minimizes environmental risks.

TORNADO Fluidized Bed Scrubber

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We always perform precise calculations and offer expert assistance in selecting the optimal dust collection or gas cleaning systems, typically completing this process within 1 to 2 days

Head of Engineering,
Vladimir Nikulin

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