Numerical investigation of the performance of electrostatic precipitators with wet rope array as collection electrodes

Abstract

Several new types of electrostatic precipitators consisted of conventional discharge electrode and novel collection electrode are proposed, in which the wet rope arrays replace the conventional metal plate to be used as collection electrodes. The corona discharge, gas flow, and particle migration processes in these electrostatic precipitators are numerically simulated to investigate the effect of rope array configuration on pressure drop and particle collection efficiency. It is found that the parallel-flow rope array configuration has comparable collection efficiency as the wire-plate configuration and the pressure drop is negligible. The cross-flow rope array configuration provides higher collection efficiency than wire-plate configuration if the rope layer number is larger than 2. The configuration with both parallel-flow and cross-flow rope arrays is the optimal configuration to provide higher collection efficiency than wire-plate configuration and the pressure drop is moderate. Results indicate that the wet rope array is a promising collection electrode configuration.