Fine particle emission occurs in many gas solid operations including prilling towers, where highly concentrated solutions are converted to prills using showerheads followed by solidification and cooling through ambient air. These emissions are generally considered as air pollutants. Reduction of the fine particle emission from an industrial prilling tower for the production of ammonium nitrate (20 t/day) is studied. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling is employed to investigate fluid flow patterns and fluid and particle trajectories at steady state operating conditions. The air flow is modeled using the Eulerian approach, where the turbulence is treated with the Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equations. Three design configurations with respect to the air exit were considered and tested using CFD. The concentrated solution was converted to droplets by operating the shower head in the Rayleigh jet breakup regime. It was found that formation of a quiescent zone around the showerhead was crucial in minimizing secondary disintegration of particles and formation of fine powder. The optimum diameter and location of a spray showerhead ring were obtained. The design of air exit configuration had substantial effect on particle air interaction and reduction of fine particle carry over. (c) 2016 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.