ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR

1. ABSTRACT
Nowadays, the environment protection has become a
crucial problem and the authorities are requested to set
increasingly more stringent limits, one of which is the emissions
from the industrial plants of solid particulate and other gaseous
pollutants.
Many countries around the world, including our own,
depend on coal and other fossil fuels to produce electricity. A
natural result from the burning of fossil fuels, particularly coal,
is the emission of fly ash. Ash is mineral matter present in the
fuel. For a pulverized coal unit, 60-80% of ash leaves with the
flue gas. Historically, fly ash emissions have received the
greatest attention since they are easily seen leaving
smokestacks.
Two emission control devices for fly ash are the
traditional fabric filters and the more recent electrostatic
precipitators. The fabric filters are large bughouse filters having
a high maintenance cost (the cloth bags have a life of 18 to 36
months, but can be temporarily cleaned by shaking or back
flushing with air). These fabric filters are inherently large
structures resulting in a large pressure drop, which reduces the
plant efficiency. Electrostatic precipitators have collection Side view of ESP Schematic Diagram
efficiency of 99%, but do not work well for fly ash with a high
electrical resistivity (as commonly results from combustion of Electrostatic precipitators are not only used in utility
low-sulfur coal). applications but also other industries (for other exhaust gas
In addition, the designer must avoid allowing unburned gas to particles) such as cement (dust), pulp & paper (salt cake & lime
enter the electrostatic precipitator since the gas could be ignited. dust), petrochemicals (sulfuric acid mist), and steel (dust &
The salt & pepper collector/selector, and repelling balloon fumes).
experiments serve to illustrate the basis of an electrostatic As we can see Electrical Engineers can play an
precipitator. In these experiments a type of electrostatic important part in the fight against pollution. Through devices
collector and electrostatic selector are created. This same such as the electrostatic precipitator, electrical engineers can
principle is used to keep the environment clean today. protect the environment from harm. Such a design also appeals
to the general public as the electricity can be produced cheaply.
The electrostatic precipitator is just one example of a device
2. INTRODUCTION (BASIC PRINCIPLE) designed by electrical engineers to help the environment.
Electrostatic precipitator (ESP) is a widely used Engineers are responsible for considering environmental impact
device in so many different domains to remove the pollutant as part of their original design work.
particulates, especially in industrial plants. Generally, the
processes of electrostatic precipitator are known as three main
stages namely Particle charging, Transport and Collection. 3. LITERATURE REVIEW
These are stages interacted that originated from the complexity Innovation, experience and a tradition of quality have
of the processes of precipitator. To characterize all these stages made Wheelabrator an acknowledged world leader in air
determines to take a great number of basic phenomena into pollution control technology for more than 90 years. Our record
account from a physical point of view when they occurred. of technological firsts includes the introduction of the Rigid
Frame Electrostatic Precipitator to North American in 1965.
Today, Wheelabrator technology encompasses all major designs
in electrostatic precipitators to clean gases from industrial and
utility processes ranging from 30,000 to 5 million ACFM.
Designs include the Wheelabrator HaRDE® Rigid
Discharge Electrode with tumbling hammer rapping and the
Wheelabrator VIGR™ Rigid Discharge Electrode with magnetic
impulse rapping. We have applied these designs to coal-fired
boilers, pulp-and-paper recovery boilers; bark boilers, catalytic
crackers, refuse-to-energy facilities, cement plants,
Cogeneration facilities and a wide variety of other processes.
Among our achievements is the world’s largest electrostatic
Top View of ESP Schematic Diagram precipitator system on a coal-fired boiler. We continue to serve
major companies throughout the world with one of the most
The flue gas laden with fly ash is sent through pipes experienced technical staffs in the air pollution control industry,
having negatively charged plates which give the particles a offering advanced equipment and a level of service few other air
negative charge. The particles are then routed past positively pollution control specialists can match.
charged plates, or grounded plates, which attract the now
negatively-charged ash particles. The particles stick to the
positive plates until they are collected. The air that leaves the
plates is then clean from harmful pollutants. Just as the spoon
picked the salt and pepper up from the surface they were on, the
electrostatic precipitator extracts the pollutants out of the air. 4.MAIN STAGES OF ELECTROSTATIC
For a more detailed overview of an electrostatic precipitator, this PRECIPITATOR
also includes a couple of nice schematics. As already mention there are three main
stages/processes of electrostatic precipitator (ESP).
1 .PARTICLE CHARGING
Particle charging is the first and foremost beginning
in processes. As the voltage applied on, precipitator reach
threshold value and the space inside is divided into ionization
region and drift region. The electric field magnitude around the
negative electrode is so strong that the electrons escape from
molecule under the influence of electric field, the positive ions
move towards the corona, whiles the negative ions and electrons
towards the collecting plates.

2. TRANSPORT
In the moving way, under the influence of electric
field, negative ions cohere and charge the particles, make the
particles be forced towards collecting-plate as shown fig.

3. PARTICLE COLLECTION
As soon as the particles reach the plate, they will be
neutralized and packed by the succeeded ones subsequently. The
continuous process happens, as a result, particles are collected
on the collecting plate.
Figure 2: plate type precipitator
5. PARTICLES IT CAN SEPARATE
 The most basic precipitator contains a row of thin
wires, and followed by a stack of large flat metal
plates, with the plates typically spaced about 1 cm
apart.
 If the applied voltage is high enough an electric
discharge ionizes the air around the electrodes.
Negative ions flow to the plates and charge the gas-
flow particles.
 The ionized particles, following the negative electric
field created by the power supply, move to the
grounded plates.

COMPONENTS:

The major precipitator components that accomplish

these activities are as follows
 Discharge Electrodes
 Collecting plates
 Power Supply and controls
 Rapping Systems
 Hoppers and Dust Handling
 Flue Gas Conditioning
Discharge Electrodes - Discharge electrodes emit
charging current and provide voltage that generates an
electrical field between the discharge electrodes and the
collecting plates
Figure 1: collection range of ESP Power supply and controls - The power supply system is
designed to provide voltage to the electrical field (or bus
TYPICAL ACTIVITIES section) at the highest possible level.
Rapping Systems - Rappers are time-controlled systems
There are six typically activities that takes place in provided for removing dust from the collecting plates and
electrostatic precipitator the discharge electrodes
 Ionization - Charging of particles Hoppers and Dust Handling - Precipitator hoppers are
designed to completely discharge dust load on demand.
 Migration - Transporting the charged particles to the
collecting surfaces

 Collection - Precipitation of the charged particles

onto the collecting surfaces

 Charge Dissipation - Neutralizing the charged

particles on the collecting surfaces

 Particle Dislodging - Removing the particles from

the collecting surface to the hopper

Figure 3:3D view of plate precipitator

 Particle Removal - Conveying the particles from the TYPES OF ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR
hopper to a disposal point  Dry ESP
They are employed on hot process exhausts (250-
6. MOST BASIC- THE PLATE 850F) that operate above the dew point of the gas
stream.
PRECIPITATOR
  Wet ESP  ESP’s can operate more range of particles than other
Wet ESP's are employed on exhausts that contain separators.
wet, sticky, tarry, tacky or oily particulates. Wet Below Table 1 shows the range of impurities covered by
ESP uses a water flushing system to remove the different techniques
particles from the collecting surface
Table 1: range of impurities covered by different collector
7. DESIGN CONSIDERATION
The following parameters to be considered while
designing any precipitator:

 Precipitator Size
When sizing the precipitator, it is important to
provide a cross-section that will maintain an
acceptable gas velocity
 Gas Velocity Distribution
Improving gas velocity distribution in the
precipitator reduces particle re-entrainment and
boosts precipitator efficiency. Gas velocity
distribution can be modified by using flow control
devices and baffles
 Particle Re-entrainment
Minimizing re-entrainment of dust particles is
important to improvement of precipitator efficiency.
 Corona Power
An optimum amount of power should be supplied
taking into consideration the cost factor and the
required efficiency.

8. ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES

Advantages:
 Versatility-effective performance on a wide range of
industrial processes
 Low pressure loss- typically less than 1 bar
 Designs can be produced to cover a temperature
range from ambient up to 850C
 Low maintenance requirements
 Electrostatic Precipitator can be installed on any
existing wet scrubber installation
 9. COST COMPARISON
Disadvantages:
 It can’t be used with materials explosive in nature.
Gases passing through ESP should not contain
entrained droplets & any other sticky material.
 It works best for particles having resistivity ranging
between moderate levels(108 to 1010 ohms-cm)
 During startup of the unit, warm exhaust gases enter
the precipitator. This can cause the formation of
water or water and acid droplets which could cause
severe corrosion in the unit. (overcome by using a
bypass)
 Toxic gases such as ozone and oxides of nitrogen
may be produced by negatively charged discharge
electrodes.

9. RELATED TEHCNIQUES
The following are the other familiar techniques that
can be use to filter or remove the particles.
 Gravity Settling Chambers
 Baffle Chamber
 Mechanical Collectors
 Particulate Wet Scrubbers
 Cyclone Separators From the above graph, it indicates that as the year of
 Fabric Filters operation increases, the maintenance cost which includes power,
Comparison of ESP with other technique water capital cost etc also increases drastically in case of any
 In a ESP the energy input works only on the particles precipitator but in the electrostatic precipitator i.e. ESP also
being collected but not on the entire gas stream as in increases the maintenance cost but at lower level as shown in
other separators above figure 4, where as compare to other techniques it costs
 An ESP can handle input streams at a higher more.
temperature.
 ESP’s have higher efficiency as compared to any 10.VARIATION IN ELECTROSTATIC DUST
other collection devices. COLLECTION TECHNOLOGY
 Electrostatic precipitators are either single stage
precipitators (high voltage) or two stage precipitators (low
voltage).
Single Stage Precipitator
Single stage precipitators are of two types
(i) Plate precipitator
(ii) Tubular precipitators
(i) Plate Precipitators
Single stage plate precipitators consist of a number
of grounded plates (collecting plates), suspended parallel to one
another with equal spacing between them (4-6 inch) and high
voltage discharge (4000-6000 volts) electrodes that are
suspended vertically between the plates from an insulated
mounting frame. The discharge voltage causes the air stream to
ionize and dust particles are negatively charged. As the
negatively charged dust particles pass along the positively
charged collection plates, they adhere to them. The collecting
electrode is cleaned, and dust particles are collected in a hopper.
Design Considerations
 Efficiency is affected by the speed of the air stream.
It is important to maintain even velocity distribution
through precipitator from side to side and from top to
bottom
 Care must be taken in design of distribution baffles
 Discharge electrodes are either hanging wires with
weights or fixed frames. Hanging wires are
economical.
 The closer the electrodes are to grounding plates, the
more effective the charging forces are at lower
voltage
Factors That Affect Efficiency
Some factors that could affect the efficiency of the
electrostatic precipitator are as follows:
 Other gases in the air stream could affect efficiency
 Some dusts have high charge and greater forces may
be required to attract them to the collection plates
 Sulfur compounds in boiler gas increase collector
efficiency
 Pressure drop usually in the range of 0.2 to 0.5
inches
Dust Discharge Considerations
Dust is removed by rapping or vibrating the collection plates
with an air-powered anvil (after turning the power supply off) so
dust falls into the hopper. Sometime dust particles collect on
high voltage insulator (since they can migrate to any grounded
or uncharged surface) forming a path for the high voltage to
ground. This could cause failure of power supply and can be
corrected by pressurizing insulators with a blower while
maintaining a flow of outside air in collecting compartment.
Charged particles do not have enough attraction by this to settle
on insulators.
(ii) Tubular Precipitators
Tubular precipitators consist of collection electrodes
that are tubular (similar to a pipe) with discharge electrodes
placed in the center of the tube. The dust laden air stream flows
through the tubes, gets negatively charged and collects on the
inside wall of the ‘collecting’ tube. The dust is cleaned from the
bottom of the tube.
This type of an electrostatic precipitator can be used
with wet electrostatic precipitators by keeping the walls
continuously wet or by washing the collection electrodes. Pipe
collection electrodes provide highly effective gas distribution
within the precipitator.
Uses of Tubular Precipitators
They are widely applied to high temperature gas
streams such as boiler exhausts in power plants since they are
able to adjust to expansion and contraction of parts. They are
also used for mist or fog collection or for adhesive, sticky,
radioactive, or extremely toxic materials. Tubular precipitators
find application in operations involving mineral processing.
Two Stage Precipitator
In the Two Stage Precipitator grounded plates are
placed about an inch apart with an intermediate plate that is also
charged. With the two-stage system, instead of 4000-6000 DC
supply, it has 13000-15000 volt supply with intermediate supply
at 7500 volts. Dust load in this system is normally between 0.01
to 0.1 grains per 1000 cu.ft.
Two Stage ESP Advantages
 Highly efficient
 Self cleaning washing systems
 The washing system is a light duty unit designed for
250 cycles.
 Has longer life since cleaning is required only
monthly.
 Air distribution is even since dust collecting filtering
device operates at same velocities as heating and
cooling coils
Uses of Two Stage Precipitators
Two stage precipitators are generally used in plants
where welding, grinding and burning operations are performed.
However since maintenance requires removal of precipitator
frames and manual cleaning of delicate assemblies, the electrode
wires had the problem of being broken. This caused collection
efficiencies to suffer.
Two stage precipitators are used in hooded and
ducted automatic welding machines or welding booths when
dust load has increased to 30-50 grains per cu.ft per minute
Design Considerations
 Plates have to be maintained at precise distances.
This calls for special tooling.
 Installing insulators in compartments through which
air is blown or drawn from outside, reduces dust
particles collection on insulators. This increases life
of insulator in heavy load conditions as well.
 Since even flow distribution is critical to achieve
99% precipitation, care must be taken such that
charged particles quickly lose static charge. In poor
velocity distribution circumstances under
atmospheric conditions of low humidity, particles
may not lose charge, sometime indefinitely. In such
cases all surfaces become collecting surfaces and this
phenomenon is called plating.
 Plating is a major disadvantage in Two Stage
Precipitators and can be avoided by having even
flow, lower speed air stream flow. Plating can also
be countered by applying an alternating current to the
high voltage power supply that effectively removes
charge from particles coming through the collector.
This method can be used effectively even at fairly
high speeds velocities.
REFERENCES:
 Applied Electrostatic Precipitation- By K. R. Parker