Treating particle-containing SOx or NOx gas streams in parallel passage contactors

Claim 1

In a method of removing noxious gaseous atmospheric pollutants selected from the group consisting of sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides from a flue gas stream of a coal-fired combustion zone wherein said flue gas is passed through (i) a particle removal zone wherein particulate particles are removed from said flue gas stream; and (ii) a stationary parallel passage contacting zone wherein said noxious pollutants within said flue gas stream are substantially reduced to produce a flue gas stream containing a decreased quantity of said noxious pollutants; the improvement which comprises: (1) classifying by size said particulate particles removed from said flue gas stream in said particle removal zone to produce a quantity of relatively coarse particles having an average particle size at least twice as great as the average particle diameter of said particles in said flue gas stream and a quantity of relatively fine particles; (2) admixing at least a portion of said quantity of relatively coarse particles into said flue gas stream containing said noxious pollutants; (3) passing said flue gas stream containing said noxious pollutants and said quantity of relatively coarse particles through said stationary parallel passage contacting zone under turbulent conditions to reduce the quantity of deposited fine particulate material from the outer surface of said stationary parallel passage contactor; and (4) passing said flue gas stream containing said quantity of relatively coarse particles to said particle removal zone to remove at least a portion of said quantity of relatively coarse particles from said flue gas before emission of said flue gas containing a reduced quantity of said noxious pollutants to the atmosphere.