Air Scrubber – How Does It Clean?

What do you use an air scrubber for? Air scrubbers are a reliable method to remove airborne gaseous contaminants from any indoor area. Many manufacturing plants, businesses, workshops and even homes use air scrubbers. There are two processes which an air scrubber can utilize to clean the air of gaseous contaminants. The first process commonly used with an air scrubber is called adsorption. Adsorption is a process in which one substance is drawn to and stuck on the surface of another. The words adsorbent and adsorbate relate to the act of capturing molecules. The adsorption process can be done easily when a material uses attractive force to overcome the kinetic energy of a gas molecule.

A more clear example of how adsorption works is the way cigarette smoke is absorbed quickly into a car’s interior lining. It’s really incredible how the gas molecules of the cigarette can leave the air and go into the car’s interior lining. When you enter a vehicle of a smoker you always can tell immediately that they smoke because of the gas molecules held fast in the vehicle’s interior lining. Air scrubbers adsorption process works much in the same way as the cigarette smoke in the car does. Instead of interior lining adsorption uses granular activated carbons (GAC’s) or sorbents such as activated aluminas to attract gas molecules. An air scrubber also uses the a resistance to airflow, the adsorbent bed depth, temperature, gas velocity, and the characteristics of the contaminants which need to be cleaned out of the air to more effectively rid the air of gaseous contaminants. The adsorption process is one of methods an air scrubber utilizes to clean the air of pollutants.

Another process an air scrubber can use to remove airborne gaseous contaminants from the air is called chemisorption. Chemisorption consists of adsortpion and irreversible chemical reactions. Most adsorbent materials do not eliminate all gases equally. It can be ineffective at time if you are seeking complete removal of pollutants. Chemisorption improves on the adsorbent process by incorporating various chemicals into the equation. During the chemisorption process certain chemicals are mixed with the less-adsorbable gases which reacts by forming a new more stable chemical compound. These new chemical compounds are bound to the application as organic or inorganic salts. This new compound is sometimes released back into the air as CO or water vapor. Chemisorption is the result of various chemical reactions on the surface of the adsorbent.

It is a two stage process. The adsorbates are physically adsorbed onto the adsorbent. Then they chemically react to the adsorbent and a chemical impregnant is added into the mix. The most common chemical impregnant used during this method of an air srubber is potassium permanganate. The chemisorption process of an air scrubber can effectively help clean the air of gaseous contaminants such as toxic gases, corrosive gases, irritant gases, odorous gases, and (ETS) environmental tobacco smoke. The air scrubber process you select to use it totally up to you and your air cleaning requirements.