Full-scale simulation of flow field in ammonia-based wet flue gas desulfurization double tower

Abstract With the increasingly strict environmental requirements, sintering flue gas desulfurization in double tower had been applied to improve desulfurization efficiency and reduce the “ammonia escape” and “aerosol” phenomena. In this work, the operating conditions of a sintering plant were simulated by ANSYS CFX and the flow fields without and with fluid spray of a full-scale ammonia-based wet flue gas desulfurization (WFGD) double tower were investigated. According to the results, the evaporating tower had a profound cooling effect on flue gas with spray. The gas flow distribution was non-uniform in evaporating tower, which needed further optimizations. The flow with spray was more uniform in both towers. The pressure drop mainly took place in absorption areas of desulfurization tower. The velocity of inlet region with spray was lower than that without spray in desulfurization tower. The temperature decreased along with the forward direction of gas flow due to the heat transfer with spray in desulfurization tower. The study provided useful data for further optimization in order to achieve high desulfurization efficiency.