Improvement of the Standard Chimney Electrostatic Precipitator by Dividing the Flue Gas Stream into a Larger Number of Pipes

Abstract

Combustion of biomass-based solid fuels is becoming increasingly popular, especially in small heat sources. A major problem in the combustion of biomass is the increased production of emissions and especially the solid component of PM particles. Currently, the most used solution to this problem is the application of electrostatic chimney separators, which innovations are discussed in our article. Two models of electrostatic precipitators were constructed in this work. The aim of this work was to compare the use of a standard single-pipe chimney electrostatic precipitator with a newer four-pipe variant. Eight measurements were performed on both devices with and without the use of an electrostatic precipitator, on the basis of which the separation efficiency was evaluated for both variants. The results of the measurements showed the initial value of the average PM production in the one-pipe variant decreased from 1012 to 416 mg.m−3 when using the separator, while in the use of the four-pipe variant it decreased from the starting value 342 to only 152 mg.m−3. These results show that the improvement of the classic single-pipe separator by increasing the number of tubes significantly reduced the production of PM emissions and increased the separation efficiency from 66 to 85%.

Design of a Low-Cost Electrostatic Precipitator to Reduce Particulate Matter Emissions from Small Heat Sources

“…The electrostatic precipitator, which was investigated, consists of two constructions. To extend the principle of a classical tubular precipitator with an ionization electrode, and the first version is based on the work carried out by our department [10]. In this case, the authors added a precipitator into the original 200 mm diameter chimney tube, which consisted of an extended 300 mm tube containing four smaller 120 mm tubes representing the precipitation electrodes.…”

“…More than a twofold increase in the collection area while maintaining the The aim of this work is to create an efficient device suitable for heating households with solid fuel, while the focus is on price and operational affordability. Inspiration comes from the development of a precipitator with four collecting pipes placed in a chimney [10]. It was possible to achieve a separation level up to 85% with a precipitator length of 2 m and a preliminary improved variant of the tubular precipitator.…”

Separation processes for the treatment of industrial flue gases – Effective methods for global industrial air pollution control

“…When it comes to the combustion of solid fuels that are biomass-based, one major challenge is the increasing production and emission of the solid part of particulate matter which constitutes flue gas. This emission is on the increase because biomass is largely used as a renewable source [ 64 ]. Research has shown the importance of electrostatic precipitators, and it is preferred because of their simplicity of installation requiring little space, higher efficiency, and cost-effectiveness.…”

Numerical Simulation and Analytical Evaluation of the Collection Efficiency of the Particles in a Gas by the Wire-Plate Electrostatic Precipitators

“…In the above equations, φ c is the corona onset voltage (V), f is the roughness factor (assumed as one in this study), and E c is the corona onset electric field defined in Equation (7). After calculating J p , the total current I (A) per corona charging wire can be obtained as follows [46]:…”

“…These contaminants significantly affect human health as well as the environment and organisms [1][2][3][4]. There are various contaminant filtering technologies; among them, electrostatic precipitation has the advantages of lowpressure drop in the main fluid flow and relatively good performance in the collection efficiency [5][6][7]. Electrostatic precipitation systems have been widely used to control the emissions with flue gases in power generation systems, combustion and chemical processing units, and several industrial mass transport processes.…”