Scrubbing theory of a volatile fission product vapor-containing gas jet in a water pool

When a mixture of fission product vapor and inert gas enters a scrubbing pool of liquid (water) that is at a temperature well below the dew point of the vapor component, a large fraction of the vapor mass condenses just outside the injector exit in the gas as aerosol (or fog) rather than on the water surfaces presented to the incoming gas stream. The fog particles formed by this vapor phase nucleation event are typically very small, of the order of 0.1- to 1.0μm diam, and are not easily removed from the gas bubbles that form above the injector and rise through the water pool. These gas bubbles, however, usually obscure the presence of a gas jet at the injector. Wassel et al. studied aerosol scrubbing in the gas injection zone of a scrubbing pool. These analyses, however, ignored liquid entrainment into the gaseous stream. In so doing, they have neglected the enormous interfacial area available for particle impaction, shown here to be crucial for high-velocity gas jets. The present investigation considers the potential of such a submerged gas jet as an atomizing condensate aerosol scrubber