Study of Air Pollution Control in a Prilling Tower of Petrochemical Plant in South of Iran

The neutralization of ammonia gas with nitric acid produces ammonium nitrate fertilizer.The waste air emitted from the evaporation and drying section contains very fine particles. In this study various measuring equipment such as Anderson cascade impactor, light microscope and sampling cyclone were tried to obtain a reliable particle size distribution and concentration. Particle concentration and size distribution were obtained as a function of operating condition in one of the petrochemical in south of Iran. It was found that particle size distribution emitted to the atmosphere range from an average diameter of 1 to 3 micron and geometric standard deviation of 5 to 8 depending on operating conditions. Considering that the average particle diameter for worse condition was less than one micron, a scrubbing system was designed among other controlling equipment such as cyclone, baghouse filter, and electrostatic precipitator for emission control.

Keywords:

Ammonium nitrate , Prilling , size distribution , Concentration