Cost Function for Wet Desulfurization of Flue Gas

Wet method is one of major treatment procedures for flue-gas desulphurization. In Taiwan, there are four kinds of treatment system are used frequently and the market share is over 95%. In order to assist users for better decision-making process, the purpose of this study is to build up a simple cost function and to compare four commonly used wet methods of flue-gas desulphurization as the subject of research. In additions, this study also defines the research scope and rules out the uncertain factors. Based on the simulation results of this cost model, this study shows that the sodium hydroxide method is the best choice of the condition with small gas volume and low concentration of sulfur oxides. For the condition of medium to big size, boilers with higher discharge gas volume and where the operating cost matters, the magnesium oxide method is a better choice. While the discharge gas volume is huge and the concentration of sulfur oxides is significantly high, the limestone method is the best fit. Finally, if there is no limitation of geographic condition and fishery policy, seawater method is the best of choices.