Experimental studies on retention of iodine in a wet scrubber

In order to develop an iodine scrubbing model for nuclear severe accidents, experimental data on filtration efficiency of a wet scrubber for gaseous molecular iodine are collected to improve understanding of the basic mechanisms involved in iodine chemical scrubbing. A bubble column reactor 1.5 m high and 0.2 m in diameter equipped with an injection nozzle and a bubble breaker is used to investigate retention under relevant flow regimes. Scrubber is loaded with a scrubbing solution containing sodium hydroxide and sodium thiosulphate, no irradiation is provided. Retention efficiency is found to be strongly dependent on flow regime and on residence time as models predict. It was found that jet-like injection has a strong effect on filtration efficiency introducing a significant dependence on iodine initial concentration in gas phase believed to be due to nozzle hydrodynamics.