Process for removing sulfur dioxide in a wet scrubber

Claim 1

A process for the removal of oxides of sulfur from a flue gas stream comprising the steps of: (a) introducing flue gas containing SO 2 to a wet scrubbing device; (b) introducing simultaneously with said flue-gas stream a controlled amount of SO 2 reactant scrubbing solution and a controlled amount of fly-ash solution to said scrubber to form a resulting solution; (c) monitoring the amount of SO 2 to said scrubbing device by establishing a signal to an analog computer, said computer being provided with preselected operating conditions of said process, said computer signalling first flow control means for said SO 2 reactant scrubbing solution and second flow control means for said fly-ash solution whereby the amount of SO 2 reactant scrubbing solution and the amount of fly-ash solution added to the wet scrubber is determined by said signals from said computer; (d) removing a controlled amount of said resulting solution from said wet scrubbing device; and, (e) introducing said resulting solution to a recycle tank, reading the pH of said resulting solution in said resulting tank, and adding a controlled amount of an alkali solution to said recycle tank, said control amount being determined by the pH reading, to maintain a preselected pH in said recycle tank at from four to eight, the resulting mixture being said SO 2 reactant scrubbing solution; and, (f) establishing a signal from the pH reading to said computer, said computer signalling said first and second flow means based on said pH reading and comparing said pH reading with said preselected operating conditions.