• colonna di laboratorio
• lab column
• random packing
• acqua di mare
• seawater
• gas esausti
• exhaust gases
• trattamento gas
• gas treatment
• anidride solforosa
• sulphur dioxide
• assorbimento
• absorption

The spread in gas emissions in the previous century has led governments to implement environmental policies, on the other hand there is a lack of regulations in the shipping sector. In recent years, the maritime reference organisation (IMO) has implemented new norms in order to restrict gases emissions by 2020. The most suitable option is to install an exhaust gas cleaning system to remove substances. Sulphur dioxide represents one of the larger pollutant contribution in the exhaust gases composition of ships. Different technologies (FGD) are available to uptake this substance.
Among those, seawater has become nowadays an appealing option as liquid absorbent. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the absorption of sulphur dioxide into seawater in a lab-packed column, evaluating the influence of different operating conditions in terms of removal efficiencies as well as mass transfer effectiveness. A thermodynamic model has been developed to understand the seawater complex system. Mass transfer experiments have been carried out with seawater, hydrochloric acid and caustic soda in order to characterize the behaviour of the column, to determine the overall volumetric mass transfer coefficients and to estimate the gas and the liquid side volumetric mass transfer coefficients. The implementation of the computed theoretical thermodynamic model together with the experimental volumetric mass transfer coefficients has led to a comprehensive evaluation of the sulphur dioxide absorption into seawater, in terms of removal efficiency, mass transfereffectiviness as well as to an estimation of the enhancement factor.