Experimental research of capture enhancement mechanism of submicron particles by designing two-stage electrostatic precipitators with various ratios of charger and collector units

Abstract

In this paper, six kinds of two-stage ESPs with various ratios of charger and collector units are designed to research the capture enhancement mechanism of submicron particles. The working conditions are optimized by studying the influence of gas velocity, charger current, and electric field strength of collector. Results show that the electrostatic field characteristics of the two-stage ESP with Ra = 1/6 is beneficial to improve the collection efficiency while slightly less stable. The indicator factor of particle charging enhancement effect of two-stage ESP with Ra = 6/1 fluctuates between 0.06 and 0.1, which suggests that the two-stage ESP with a higher proportion of charger units cannot achieve the satisfying performance for the limitation of ionic wind effect. Under comprehensive consideration of ionic wind effect and ozone emission, the two-stage ESP with Ra = 2/5 is selected at the first priority by exerting the advantages of fully particle charging and enough collection space, which has a strong potential in both particle charging enhancement and electric field enhancement. However, for improving the collection efficiency of submicron particle with a size ranging from 0.2 to 0.5 µm which suffers from both of weak particle charging and agglomeration effect, the two-stage ESP with Ra = 4/3 is not recommended.