Introduction and simulation of a small electro cyclone for collecting indoor pollen particles

Abstract

Since pollen is a major cause of allergies, collecting it from the environment seems to be beneficial. In this study, a new electro cyclone is proposed and simulated for collecting pollen from indoor environments. In this cyclone, an electrode is added to a traditional cyclone to apply additional force to particles that have already been pre-charged. The obtained results showed an increase of 14, 33 and 53 (%) in separation efficiency for pollen particle sizes of 10, 8 and 6 µm. Moreover, at lower inlet velocity, high electrostatic voltage enhances the efficiency, with the effect being more noticeable on finer particles. The validity of the simulation results was confirmed by comparing it with experimental and simulation findings of our previous study. It is also concluded that small electro cyclone systems are more efficient in removing fine particles from various gas streams.