Electrical Agglomeration of Aerosol Particles in an Alternating Electric Field

Abstract

A laboratory scale test system has been used to study the electrical agglomeration of charged aerosol particles to increase the collection efficiency of electrostatic precipitators. The system consists of test aerosol generator, aerosol charger, agglomerator chambers, and aerosol measurement equipment. Air atomizing nozzles and the TSI six-jet atomizer have been used as the test particle generators. The test particles have been charged by a corona discharge. Two types of agglomerator chambers have been investigated. In one agglomerator the gas flows between two parallel plates, across which the alternating high voltage is applied. The other agglomerator is a quadrupole structure with cylindrical electrodes positioned between the grounded plates. Particle concentration and size distribution measurements have been carried out downstream of the agglomerator with agglomerator voltage on and off. Particle concentrations and size distributions have been measured with differential mobility analyzer (DMA) and a Berner Low pressure impactor. Agglomeration caused about a 4%-8% decrease in the fine particle concentration when the total mass concentration was between 1 and 2 g/m[sup 3]. There was no difference between the results measured with the parallel plate and the quadrupole agglomerator. 19 refs., 7 figs., 1 tab.