Now let's get to the heart of the matter—how to actually perform these calculations in Excel. The following methodology can be adapted for any scrubber type.
: Ensure your liquid loading rate ( Lwcap L sub w ) falls within the recommended limits for random packings:
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), or via empirical values provided by packing vendors (typically ranging from 1.5 to 3.5 feet). 3. Best Practices for Building Your Excel Scrubber Sheet scrubber design calculation excel best
The key formulas required to build your packed bed wet scrubber spreadsheet are summarized below.
Excel is the best for preliminary and detailed mechanical design, not for rigorous CFD. But for 90% of industrial scrubber sizing, Excel wins.
A basic sheet works. A best sheet includes these Excel power features. Now let's get to the heart of the
Use conditional formatting to turn the cell red if the liquid load is low enough to cause dry spots or high enough to cause mechanical flooding.
An industrial must balance chemical kinetics, thermodynamics, and fluid dynamics to accurately size packed bed columns. To build the best professional-grade calculator, engineers must move beyond basic sizing formulas and integrate rigorous, iterative calculations for pressure drop, flooding velocities, and mass transfer coefficients.
HTU represents the efficiency of the chosen packing material. It can be calculated using the Onda Correlations, which factor in liquid and gas film mass transfer coefficients ( ), or via empirical values provided by packing
Here is a quick verification case to test your Excel formulas: User Inputs: Gas Density: Liquid Density: Target Removal Efficiency: Selected Packing Factor ( Fpcap F sub p ): Design Velocity: Set to based on a conservative fraction of flooding. Target Sheet Outputs: Cross-Sectional Area: Column Diameter: Required NTU: Bed Height (assuming conservative HTU of 2.5 ft):
Inputs for inlet gas flow rate, temperature, pressure, and detailed pollutant concentration.
are generated via Onda's remaining dimensionless groups (Schmidt and Reynolds numbers), Excel can compute the overall height of a transfer unit: