Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling and Analysis of Lime Slurry Drying in a Laboratory Spray Dry Scrubber

Drying is an important process found in different industries including spray dry scrubbing as used in flue gas desulphurization. Understanding the fundamental processes in drying requires accurate description of turbulence and drying models, which is important in the design and optimization of new processes. Available research in spray dry scrubbing generally picks a single model to describe drying with the key assumption that it is relevant to the case being studied. This work does not make such an assumption but investigated the applicability of three drying models and three turbulence models in analyzing the drying process in a laboratory spray dry scrubber. Computational fluid dynamics was used to model the process employing the Euler–Lagrangian framework. The results from validated models showed that the investigated hindered drying mechanistic model is superior to the often used d2 law and perfect shrinkage models and should therefore be used preferentially in drying applications.