Abstract
Electric agglomeration is the process in which particles are charged in electric fields and coagulate, which is enhanced by electric force or turbulence. The collection efficiency of submicron particles is improved, which can be a solution to submicron particle abatement in traditional electrostatic precipitators (ESPs), by using a pre-charger to increase median particle diameter and realizing particle pre-charging. In this study, a laboratory bipolar pre-charger with a perforated plate between discharging regions was designed to examine ionic-wind-assisted charge-induced agglomeration, and an ESP was arranged afterwards to collect the fine particles. Experiments were conducted to investigate submicron particle charging, agglomeration characteristics, and collection efficiency. Results indicated that a pre-charger with proper discharging voltage match and plate porosity can optimize particle agglomeration and improve collection efficiency by about 12% compared with the results obtained without a pre-charger. An optimal solution was achieved and a collecting efficiency of 96%–98% was obtained for all sizes by utilizing the turbulence caused by ionic wind and optimizing the experimental operation conditions.
Highlights
Particulate matter pollution is a serious global problem because fine particles can remain suspended in air and spread with atmospheric motion, causing permanent health and environmental damage(Kagawa and Ishizaka, 2014)
Results indicated that a pre-charger with proper discharging voltage match and plate porosity can optimize particle agglomeration and improve collection efficiency by about 12% compared with the results obtained without a pre-charger
Experimental Setup A study on fine particle agglomeration and collection was conducted in a laboratory electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) combined with a bipolar pre-charger and a mixing region characterized by an acrylic duct 20 cm in width, 10 cm in height, and 100 cm in length
Summary
Particulate matter pollution is a serious global problem because fine particles can remain suspended in air and spread with atmospheric motion, causing permanent health and environmental damage(Kagawa and Ishizaka, 2014). Particles less than 1 μm in diameter can penetrate the alveoli where gas exchange occurs (Londahl et al, 2006; Cao et al, 2013) These particles behave to gas molecules and affect gas exchange within the lungs, penetrating the lung into the blood stream and translocating further into the cell tissue and/or the circulatory system (Valavanidis et al, 2008), which lead to significant health problems such as asthma attacks, nonfatal heart attacks, and even cancer (Gorbunov et al, 2013; Crilley et al, 2014; Kim et al, 2015). Given that particles with different polarities can attach together to form larger ones, the collecting efficiency of submicron particles improves through the pre-charger enhancement
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