Acetic Acid Scrubber

Acetic acid is a colourless liquid, it has a pungent odour. It has hygroscopic in nature, means absorbs moisture and it can affect metals, plastics, rubber and coating. It is used in manufacture of chemical compounds in pharmaceuticals, dyes, plastics, textiles industries. It is mostly used as laboratory reagent in chemical and biochemical analysis, flavouring agent, acidifier and as solvent. Vapour generated while handling acetic acid are hazardous to the health if inhaled directly.

Exposure Limits

• NIOSH REL TWA: 10 ppm (25 mg/m³), ST (Short time): 15 ppm (37 mg/m³)
• OSHA PEL (Permissible Exposure Limit) TWA:  10 ppm (25 mg/m³)
• IDLH (Immediately Dangerous to Life or Health):  50 ppm

The acetic acid vapour can be removed using water or alkali solutions. However, choosing of type of scrubber depends on concentration of acetic acid in the gas stream and required scrubbing efficiency. For a gas stream with high concentration, it is better to design scrubber with water/alkali solutions. If the gas stream has low acetic acid concentration, <100 ppm, it will be good choosing the dry scrubbing method.

Acetic acid dissolves easily in water, but the neutralization/degradation of ethylene glycol is very slow process. If we use wet scrubber, water will be saturated with ethylene oxide, thus giving low efficiency at recirculation. Alternatively, once through water for wet scrubbing is generally not practical since it consumes large amount of water. Apzem approach is to eliminate acetic acid fumes from your facility using adsorption technology. Specialized adsorption media will be used to get higher removal capacity rather than normal media. The saturated media can be disposed easily in non-hazardous landfills.