CFD Model to Analyze SO2 Absorption in a Seawater Droplet

Abstract

In the recent years, seawater scrubbers have become an interesting option to reduce SO2 emissions in marine engines. In this regard, this paper proposes a numerical model to analyze SO2 absorption in seawater. A single seawater droplet was analyzed, and the developed model was used to predict the influence of several parameters on the desulphurization efficiency, such as the droplet diameter, SO2 concentration, alkalinity and temperature. It was found that a droplet of 200 μm initial diameter can absorb up to 1.77∙10-14 mol of S for the parameters analyzed, and this reduction improves when the alkalinity and SO2 concentration are increased and diameter, seawater temperature and gas temperature are reduced. Differences up to of 21.5%, 19.8%, 2.2% and 16.3% in the S reduction were obtaining varying the SO2 initial concentration, alkaline initial concentration, initial liquid temperature and initial gas temperature respectively.