Hydrodynamic fume scrubber

A hydrodynamic fume scrubber for scrubbing a gaseous phase effluent with a scrubbing liquid, the fume scrubber comprising:

• inlet means for receiving the particulate laden gaseous effluent into the scrubber and for providing a first effluent to scrubbing fluid interface,
• negative pressure providing means for drawing a stream of the effluent passing from the inlet means into a first pressurized component of the scrubbing liquid in a manner generating negative pressure with respect to the effluent,
• a main scrubbing chamber including:
• means for receiving the first pressurized component of the scrubbing liquid and the effluent stream from the negative pressure providing means into an upper region of the chamber,
• hydrodynamic spray means driven by a second pressurized component of the scrubbing liquid for hydrodynamically spraying the second component throughout the upper region of the chamber,
• filter media means disposed in a central region of the chamber for filtering and mixing the effluent gas and scrubbing liquid thereby to promote dissolution of components within the effluent which are soluble in the scrubbing liquid,
• a scrubbing liquid, scrubbed gas separation region within the chamber below the filter media means for separating and discharging scrubbed gas effluent collected therein,
• splash plate means at the lower boundary of the separation region for further breaking up particle masses formed within the scrubbing liquid as it drips from a lower surface of the filter media means through the separation region,
• scrubbing liquid reservoir means below the splash plate means in a lowermost region of the chamber for receiving excess scrubbing liquid,
• the scrubber further comprising scrubbing liquid supply means for supplying scrubbing liquid to the scrubber from a source thereof, and discharge means for discharging scrubbing liquid from the reservoir means at a flow rate approximating the flow rate of scrubbing liquid incoming from the supply means.