If I had air with relatively large non-hazardous "contaminants" (airborne oils, dust, pollen, etc.) and I pushed that air through a layer of warm water, would that air pass through while the impurities remained in the water?

If not, what if the water had a strong negative electric charge (like static)? I realize that it would only repel things that had a negative charge, but would it cling to impurities with neutral and/or positive charges?

I guess, if the pollutant is soluble in water,

Depends a lot on what you mean by 'pushed the air through water'. If you bubble it through, an awful lot of the air never actually touches the water. If you are dissolving the air in the water, then maybe.

The "filtering" systems on coal burning power houses are water based.

Here is a simplified look at how they work

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If I had air with relatively large non-hazardous "contaminants" (airborne oils, dust, pollen, etc.) and I pushed that air through a layer of warm water, would that air pass through while the impurities remained in the water?

not entirely, any airborne contaminants in any bubbles would get though. also the surface tension of water is rather high, making the diffusion of a particle though the "skin" of a bubble difficult.

If not, what if the water had a strong negative electric charge (like static)? I realize that it would only repel things that had a negative charge, but would it cling to impurities with neutral and/or positive charges?

no. you'd need some kind of negatively charged ions, to covalently bond with postively charged ions, and vica versa (if my chemistry memory serves me correctly). neutral charged particles would be unaffected, you'd need to find some reactive chemical bond to grab them.

that's why micron filtration materials, and not a jug of water, are used in air purifiers and such.

The "filtering" systems on coal burning power houses are water based.

they can probably get away with water due to the type of materials (IE soot) they're trying to remove from the air stream. carbon is pretty heavy, isn't really reactive, and in this case is also macroscopic. they blow it into the tank, the carbon, having a higher density, falls to the bottom, the air bubbles rise to the top. easy separation. will work with any heavy material, sand, metal shavings, etc.

If I had air with relatively large non-hazardous "contaminants" (airborne oils, dust, pollen, etc.) and I pushed that air through a layer of warm water, would that air pass through while the impurities remained in the water?

Large particles like ash are collected, and a large amount of the fine particles of the smoke itself are also absorbed by the water, but obviously a lot of non-pure air does make it through, or smokers wouldn't bother with it!

That's the premise behind a "waterpipe" tongue.png

Large particles like ash are collected, and a large amount of the fine particles of the smoke itself are also absorbed by the water, but obviously a lot of non-pure air does make it through, or smokers wouldn't bother with it!

As soon as I read the title the first thing I thought of was a bong.

As far as I know "water filters" are acceptable for a lot of applications. There were vacuum cleaners around bubbling dust in a water tank and they work pretty well in my opinion. I didn't know this was used even on large scale, thank you Shippou!

no. you'd need some kind of negatively charged ions, to covalently bond with postively charged ions, and vica versa (if my chemistry memory serves me correctly). neutral charged particles would be unaffected, you'd need to find some reactive chemical bond to grab them.

Well, water is bipolar either way, that's why it is able to work as a more or less universal solvent.

If I had air with relatively large non-hazardous "contaminants" (airborne oils, dust, pollen, etc.) and I pushed that air through a layer of warm water, would that air pass through while the impurities remained in the water?

Having "oil" and "non-hazardous" in one sentence is a bit daunting, but in general that question can be answered with a counter-question: "Did you ever talk a walk outside after a long rain?". If you haven't noticed the difference, you cannot be helped.

Water will certainly filter out aerosols, though to what amount depends on how the water is applied (drop size, or in your case, bubble size) and on the solubility of materials. Oily aerosols obviously don't go all that well (they do, just not well), unless you add a detergent or unless the water is hot (or both).

Ultrasound may be helpful rather than electric charge. Ultrasound is able to split oil into microsocopic droplets which will dissolve perfectly in water, at least temporarily. They will eventually (within a minute or two) reform to larger drops and finally form a carpet on the water surface. This is actually an advantage compared to using a detergent, as you can skim the oil from the surface (or run the mix through a separator) soon after it is no longer within the area of effect of the ultrasound source.

The much bigger problem is, however, generally what to do with the water afterwards.