The Flakt-Hydro process: flue gas desulfurisation by use of seawater

ABB's seawater scrubbing process (the Flakt-Hydro process) for flue gas desulfurisation has recently triggered much interest among power producers because of its simple operating principle and high reliability. The process uses seawater to absorb and neutralise sulfur dioxide in flue gases. The absorbed gas is oxidised and returned to the ocean in the form it originated in the first place, namely as dissolved sulfate salts. The process uses the seawater downstream of the power plant condensers. This paper gives an introduction to the basic principle of the process and presents some of the recent power plant applications, namely at the Paiton Private Power Project, Phase 1 (2 ∞ 670 Mwe) in Indonesia and at the Shenzhen West Power Plant, Unit 2 (300 MWe) in China.

Keywords: desulfurisation, flakt-hydro process, flue gases, power plants