5-9 Particulate Control Equipment

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

A number of factors must be determined before a proper choice of collection equipment can be made: The physical and chemical properties of the particles; The range of the volumetric flow rate of the gas stream; The range of expected particulate concentrations (dust loadings); The temperature and pressure of the flow stream; The humidity; The nature of the gas phase (such as corrosive and solubility characteristics); The required condition of the treated effluent. this may be the most important piece of information for particulate control. Why?

The condition 7 indicates the collection efficiency that must be met, either by a single piece of equipment or several operating in series. The five basic classes of particulate collection equipments: Gravity settling chambers Cyclone (centrifugal) separators Wet collectors Fabric filters Electrostatic precipitators

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

5-9-A Gravity Settling Chambers

Gravitational force may be employed to remove particles in settling chambers when settling velocity is greater than about __________.
In general, this applies to particles larger than _____ if particle density is low, down to _______ if the material is reasonably dense. What would be needed if we want to use this kind of device to remove smaller particles?

One possible configuration of a gravity settling chamber

 For a gravity chamber to be effective in preventing reentering of the settled particles, the gas velocity must be uniform and relatively _________, certainly less than _______ and preferably less than _________.

Theoretically, the minimum particle size that can be removed with 100 percent efficiency can be derived in the following manner.

The fractional collection efficiency for a given particle size dp For particle sizes below that given by Vt = (VH/L) = Q/(LW) = f(dp)

Or dp,min = (18uHV/gLtho_p)^1/2,
The fractional collection efficiency for a given particle size dp can be estimated for uniform duct flow by the relation

 For settling chamber with n horizontal baffles (n flow channels), the settling velocity Vt,

* The collecting efficiency for this kind of settling chamber with n flow channels:

Remarks on the use of above equation

Turbulent within any device, including the settling chamber, causes deviations in the particles movement under an applied external force, resulting in deviations in the particles movement toward the collection surface. In the case of the settling chamber, it causes deviations in the particles (1) speed and (2) direction of flow when compared to the uniform duct flow model with no macroscopic mixing.
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Limitation of the Uniform Duct Flow Model

Therefore, it is important to assess whether the flow through a pipe or box (settling chamber) is ___________ or __________ (well mixed). In general, if the Reynolds number of the flow through the device is less than approximately ________, the flow is considered in a laminar flow regime. As Re increases from _______ to ________, the flow undergoes a transition from laminar to turbulent. The flow is considered to be fully turbulent for Re ________.
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For a fully turbulent flow

The density and viscosity of the fluid in this case are that of air. The diameter to be used in the Re calculation is the characteristic or hydraulic diameter of the pipe or box. The hydraulic diameter Dh is defined as Dh =

For the case of a box such as a settling chamber, Dh =

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Example 5-6
A settling chamber is operating at ambient conditions and has a height and width of 3 m, and a horizontal gas velocity of 1 m/s. Determine whether the air flow through the device is laminar or turbulent.

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Development of a more realistic model: To model flow as well-mixed and a laminar layer next to the collection tray

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Example 5-7
Determine the length of a simple gravity collector required to obtain an efficiency of 90 percent when collecting particles 50 um in diameter and having a density of 2.0 g/cm3. The bulk gas velocity is 0.5 m/s and the chamber is 3 m height.

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Basic characteristics of gravity settling chambers

(1) very low energy cost (2) low maintenance cost (3) low installed cost (4) excellent reliability (5) very large physical size (6) low to very low collection efficiency

The last item is particularly true when the dust loading contains substantial amounts of fine to medium-size particles.

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