Separation and Purification Technology 182 (2017) 29–35

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Separation and Purification Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/seppur

Enhancement of solid particle separation efficiency in gas cyclones using

electro-hydrodynamic method
W.I. Mazyan a, A. Ahmadi b, H. Ahmed c, M. Hoorfar a,⇑
a
University of British Columbia, School of Engineering, Canada
b
University of Prince Edward Island, School of Sustainable Design Engineering, Canada
c
American University of Sharjah, School of Engineering, United Arab Emirates

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper investigates the feasibility of using electro-hydrodynamic forces to enhance the efficiency of
Received 26 November 2016 solid-gas separation in cyclone separators. Electro-hydrodynamic forces are applied using electrostatic
Received in revised form 14 March 2017 coating of particles on which the lateral forces are increased in the presence of a radial static charge. It
Accepted 19 March 2017
is shown that these additional forces are larger than the centrifugal force. The experimental and theoret-
Available online 20 March 2017
ical results show that the proposed method enhances the efficiency by 33% for the particle sizes of 4 lm,
and hence can be used as an enhancement to the conventional cyclone designs.
Keywords:
Ó 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Electrostatic coating
Electro-hydrodynamics
Cyclone
Gas treatment

1. Introduction
Natural gas has become one of the most desired energy sources
due to its efficient combustion and low carbon dioxide emissions.
Dependency on natural gas is increasing rapidly [1] to avoid poten-
tial risks associated with alternative energy sources produced by
entities such as nuclear and electrical power generation plants.
To meet this increasing demand, there have been advances in dif-
ferent parts of natural gas processing steps including gas extrac-
tion, treatment, preparation to transport and transportation to
the desired destination. The treatment process involves filtration
(the removal of solid particles and liquid droplets [2]) and the
removal of sour gases (such as H2S and CO2) [3]. Filtration is a vital
process in natural gas treatment as it prevents pitting of the down-
stream mechanical equipment.
There are many technologies available for filtration of solid par-
ticles and liquid droplets [2,4,5]. Among these techniques, Cyclone
scrubbers have been used widely, as they can handle high temper-
atures and corrosive liquids, and also offer low capital cost and
ease of operation as they do not possess moving parts. A typical
design of cyclone separators is shown in Fig. 1. As the particulate
gas enters the chamber tangentially, the particles follow a helical
path and experience centrifugal forces. Since the solid particles
⇑ Corresponding author at: School of Engineering, University of British Columbia,
Canada.
E-mail address: mina.hoorfar@ubc.ca (M. Hoorfar).
are denser than the gas particles, they are pushed towards the
cyclone walls by the centrifugal force and are collected at the bot-
tom of the cyclone. The filtered gas is then collected at the gas out-
let vent located at the top of the cyclone.
Since the introduction of cyclones, modeling the particle-
separation efficiency has been a topic of interest to reduce the opti-
mization cost [6]. For example, Zhao [7] developed a time-of-flight
model to predict the particle separation efficiency, and compared
their model efficiency with the experimental results of [8] as well
as other numerical models presented by Leith and Licht [9] and
Barth [10]. Zhao’s model was in agreement with the experimental
results with a maximum error of 10%. In another study, Qian and
Zhang [11] added the effect of the straight tube and dustbin on
the separation efficiency. The straight tube effect was included in
their model by modifying the particle residence time so that the
entire cyclone geometry would be utilized. Their findings indicated
a maximum error of 7% compared to the experimental data pro-
cured by Hoffmann et al. [12] and Qian et al. [13].
The main drawback of the cyclone filters is their low efficiency
in solid particle removal. Based on the current designs of cyclones,
the efficiency of solid removal increases at higher inlet velocities.
However, a higher velocity causes a greater pressure drop (due
to the increased turbulence), and hence, an increase in the operat-
ing cost. In recent years, many researchers have focused on
increasing the efficiency of cyclones while maintaining the pres-
sure drop and reducing the operating cost [6]. While most of the
industrial cyclones use a certain optimum velocity (of 18.3 m/s)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2017.03.034
1383-5866/Ó 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
30 W.I. Mazyan et al. / Separation and Purification Technology 182 (2017) 29–35
Filtered Gas Outlet
Feed Gas Inlet
Fig. 1. Schematic of cyclone separator.
for the highest efficiency, several researchers have focused on
exploring alternative designs to enhance the cyclone performance.
For instance, to further reduce the pressure drop, Xiong et al. [6]
proposed the use of vortex finders at the inlet of the cyclone; the
vortex finders, which are plates/cavities with straight or helical
profiles, were able to reduce the overall pressure drop by generat-
ing a vortex. Compared to cyclone separators possessing a basic
vortex finder, the helical design reduced the pressure drop by
73% and improved the overall separation efficiency by 9%. As a
result, an efficiency of 99% was obtained for removal of particles
bigger than 10 lm, and 40% was obtained for removal of 2-lm par-
ticles. Xiong et al. [14] also compared the efficiency of a single
cyclone with that of a multi-cyclone setup. Their multi-cyclone
system consisted of 15 single cyclone separators positioned in par-
allel with the same inlet. Their findings indicated that the collec-
tion efficiency of the multi-cyclone separator is 2 –10% less than
that obtained from the single cyclone separator. This efficiency
reduction is suggested to be due to the non-uniform distribution
of the intake flow at each of the cyclones, resulting in different sep-
aration performance [14].
In recent years, wet cyclone scrubbers, which are based on
spraying mist to the particulate gas, have been proposed to
increase the centrifugal force acting on the solid particles. For
instance, Yang and Yoshida [15] investigated the injection of pure
mist (water at varying rates from 0 to 2.4 L/h) ⁄⁄within particulate
natural gas and the subsequent effects on the separation efficiency.
Their results showed a maximum of 20% efficiency improvement in
particle capture at the 0.042 L/m3 mist to gas flowrate ratio.
Despite the general success of the wet cyclone scrubbers in
enhancing the separation efficiency, they have limitations due to
the additional centrifugal force provided by these systems. In
essence, the additional centrifugal force requires an increase in
the size of the mist, which will ultimately add to the operating cost
of the cyclone.
The use of electro-hydrodynamic and magnetic forces to
increase the efficiency of the cyclones has also been proposed.
Yoshida et al. [16] studied the effect of the conical length on sepa-
rating negatively charged silica particles from water in electro-
hydro cyclones. In this particular study, sodium hydroxide was
added to the water-silica mixture to increase the pH of the mix-
ture, and thus increase the negative charge on the silica particles.
Their findings indicated that the 50% cut-size (i.e., the particle size
for which the separation efficiency of the cyclone is at 50%)
decreased as the electrical potential increased. Despite the poten-
tial of their design, it cannot be applied to pure gas applications.
In another study, Svoboda et al. [17] investigated the effects of
applying a radial magnetic field to control the density difference
of the ferro-coated silicon particles between the overflow and
underflow of the dense medium cyclone. Since the particles at
the inlet have different ferrous-silicon compositions, a reduction
in the density difference between the overflow and underflow is
required to reduce the wide range of densities available inside
the cyclone. Their study showed that by increasing the magnetic
flux density from 0 to 70 G, the density difference between the
overflow and underflow outlets reduced from 0.45 g/cm3 to
0.25 g/cm3 at a ferro-silicon feed of 2.35 g/cm3. This design is only
applicable when the silica particles are ‘naturally’ mixed with the
ferrous particles.
This paper investigates the feasibility of using electro-
hydrodynamic (EH) forces to enhance the overall efficiency of the
solid-gas separation in the cyclone scrubbers in pure gas opera-
tions. The proposed design alterations include spraying electro-
coat to further increase the lateral forces on the particles. The the-
oretical and experimental results show that the use of an addi-
tional EH forces increases the separation efficiency compared to
the conventional cyclone designs. Moreover, a cost analysis is pre-
sented to compare the operational cost of both the conventional
and proposed designs.
2. Methodology
The EH forces are introduced by creating a static charge on the
particles coated by electro-coat. In this method, solid particles in
the gas are electro-sprayed by a charged fluid in an insulated
chamber. The electro-spray process consists of a nozzle in which
a high voltage is applied across its orifice while the coating liquid
passes through the nozzle. The ferrous powder coat becomes
charged as shown in Fig. 2 [18,19]. The electro-coating is an adhe-
sive powder, and hence, attaches to the dust particles. These
charged particles move in a spiral path as they enter the cyclone.
Therefore, in the presence of a radial static charge (see Fig. 3),
the charged particles experience an additional force in the direc-
tion of the centrifugal force (radial). These electrostatic fields can
be created using a grounded metallic sheet on the walls of the
cyclone.
In this study, a cyclone with a radius of 190 mm was analyzed.
The inlet velocity of the gas-dust mixture was assumed to be 20 m/
s, where the analysis of the sample particle was modeled at the
average width of the inlet (40 mm). In the analytical calculation,
the surface charge of the solid particle was approximated to be
Fig. 2. Electro-coating apparatus.
 W.I. Mazyan et al. / Separation and Purification Technology 182 (2017) 29–35
Fig. 3. Schematic of centrifugal (FCent) with forces of electrostatic (FEH, ES) where E is
the electric field and V is the tangential velocity.
2 d
120 C/m . The surface charge value is evaluated using the Gauss
law [20] which relates the voltage to the surface charge density.
The voltage provided by the electrocuting gun can be controlled
to provide a range between 30,000 V to 50,000 V. Thus, based on
the voltage provided in the experiment, and the average particles
size (5 lm) and the permittivity of the electro coat, the surface
charge was evaluated at 120 C/m2. To verify the results, the sepa-
ration efficiency was determined for a conventional cyclone
(shown in Fig. 4), and compared to the theoretical values.
3. Modelling
A solid particle moving in a spiral motion through the cyclone
experiences forces in the gravity direction (vertical) and the direc-
tion perpendicular to gravity (horizontal). In the absence of the EH
forces, the main radial components of the horizontal force are the
inertial centrifugal and hydrodynamic drag forces, whereas the
particle weight is the only vertical force. To inspect the importance
Fig. 4. Experimental setup dimensions (Side and Front Views). Inlet velocity
(Vh = 14 m/s), H = 240 mm, h = 115 mm, L = 390 mm, D1 = 190 mm, D2 = 65 mm,
D3 = 70 mm, b (height of the inlet chamber) = 90 mm and w (width of the inlet
chamber) = 40 mm.
31
of the gravitational force, the Froude number (Fr) can be
calculated as
V 2h
Fr ¼ ; ð1Þ
gR
where Vh is the inlet tangential velocity, g is the gravitational accel-
eration, and R is the average radius of the cyclone. Since the Froude
number for the cyclone under study is approximately 500 (which
means the centrifugal forces are 500 times larger than the gravita-
tional forces), the effects of the gravitational forces are ignored in
this article. Moreover, the following assumptions have been made:
d the dust particles are spherical;
d the electro-coat covers completely the dust particles prior their
entrance to the electric charge;
d the static charge does not reduce with time;
d the radial velocity is constant;
d the particle tangential velocity equals to the gas velocity;
turbulence effects are ignored; and
d the traveling distance (S) of the solid particle is the same as that
of the gas.
The equation for particle motion in the horizontal plane is [21]
dV r
F cent  F drag ¼ m ; ð2Þ
dt
where Fcent is the centrifugal force, Fdrag is the drag force, m is the
particle mass, and Vr is the particle radial velocity. It can be
assumed that the particles follow the gas streamlines in the tangen-
tial direction, and hence, the tangential acceleration and slip veloc-
ity are zero. However, as the solid particle reaches its terminal
radial velocity, the radial component of the gas acceleration is zero,
and the particle radial velocity is the radial slip velocity.
A particle’s Reynold number is evaluated as
qgas V h Dparticle
Re ¼ ð3Þ
l
where qgas is the gas density (1.2 kg/m3), Vh is the particle’s tangen-
tial velocity (14 m/s), Dparticle is the particle diameter (i.e., 10 lm as
the largest particle size studied in this paper), and m is the gas vis-
cosity (1.8  105 kg/m.s). The Reynolds number is evaluated to be
0.93 < 1; therefore, the Stokes drag equation is applicable for the
particle size ranges studied in this paper (i.e., 1–10 lm).
As a result, the drag force can be written as [21]
F drag ¼ 6lprV r ; ð4Þ
where l is the air viscosity, r is the particle’s radius, Vr is the radial
velocity, and A is the dust particle frontal area. On the other hand,
the centrifugal force is expressed as [21]
V 2h
F cent ¼ m ; ð5Þ
R
where Vh is the tangential velocity, and R is the radial distance of the
particle from the center.
The particle capturing efficiency is calculated as [22]
mout
eSP ¼ 1  ; ð6Þ
min
where mout is the mass of the outlet sand particles and min is the
mass of the inlet sand particles. The conservation of the dust parti-
cles’ mass entering and exiting a specified control volume allows for
the evaluation of the particle collection efficiency. A control volume
having a dust mass inlet of m and outlet of m-dm is shown in Fig. 5.
During the filtration process, the filtered particles hit the curved
section and fall into the collecting pot below the cyclone cylinder.
A mass flow inlet can be expressed as [22]
32 W.I. Mazyan et al. / Separation and Purification Technology 182 (2017) 29–35

The equivalent particle path, S, can be determined by multiply-

ing the cyclone perimeter by the equivalent number of particle
turns inside the cycle (given by Lapple and expressed as [23])
S ¼ 2pRN eq ; ð16Þ

where
 
1 LH
Neq ¼ Hþ : ð17Þ
b 2
Therefore, Eq. (15) can be written as
 
_
m m V 1
eSP ¼ 1  _ out ¼ 1  exp  p h S ð18Þ
min 6lprR w
where w is the inlet width.
Adding the EH forces changes the balance of the radial forces,
and hence, Eq. (2) becomes
Fig. 5. Control volume inside the cyclone path, where CV is the control volume, ds is
the particle infinitesimal circumferential path, W is the averaged width of the dV r
controlled volume and Vh is the inlet tangential velocity. F EH þ F cent  F drag ¼ m ¼ 0; ð19Þ
dt
where FEH is the EH force, which, as discussed in the previous sec-
_ in ¼ w  b  V h  C; tion, can have different sources. When the EH force is caused by
m ð7Þ
the interaction of the charged particles with an electric field, the
3
where C is the dust concentration (in kg/m ), w is the width of the resulting electrostatic force, FEH,ES, can be estimated as [24]
control volume, and b is the height of the control volume. The same
F EH;ES ¼ qE; ð20Þ
approach can be followed to estimate the dust particles attached
(i.e., filtered particles) to the wall of the cyclone [22] as where E represents the magnitude of the electric field. It should be
noted that the effects of the electrophoretic force is ignored as
_ ¼ V r  b  ds  C ¼ C  b  V r  V h dt;
dm ð8Þ
methane gas consists of covalent bonds, and there are no free ions
where ds is the partial tangential length traveled by the particle. to cause a double layer around the charged particles.
Therefore, the mass ratio between the filtered and the inlet par- This paper proposes an enhanced theoretical model combining
ticles can be calculated by combining Eqs. (7) and (8), resulting in Avci et al. [22] and Lapple [23] models. The new model also takes
the following equation [22]: into consideration the inlet velocity and cyclone separator length.
Those two variables are important in the determination of the sep-
dm _ V r dt aration efficiency. For example, a higher inlet velocity and longer
¼ : ð9Þ
m_ w cyclone length would enhance the separation efficiencies and vice
versa.
Assuming the radial velocity to be constant, the radial acceler-
ation will be equal to zero. Therefore, Eq. (2) simplifies to:
4. Experimental evaluation
F cent ¼ F Drag : ð10Þ
To increase the radial forces acting on the particles, the particles
By substituting Eqs. (4) and (5) in Eq. (10), the relationship between
are coated with ferrous powder (100 nm in iron particles size). This
the tangential and radial velocities is derived as
type of powder can be found in laser printer toners (i.e., MICR
mV 2h Toner for HP Laser Jet or Jet Black Powder Toner). The solid parti-
Vr ¼ ð11Þ
6lprR cles in this study are mixed with the ferrous powder through Red-
line E-coating gun. The gun provides an electric charge of 30–50 kV
and Eq. (9) becomes to the ferrous-coated solid particles through its nozzle. Thus, the
dm _ mV 2h dt solid particles are mixed with the ferrous powder and becomes
¼ ; ð12Þ charged prior to their inlet to the cyclone. The charged particles
m_ 6lprR w
are attracted to the inlet walls of the cyclone that are grounded.
where m is the air viscosity, r is the particle radius, and R is the aver- On the other hand, the escaping solid particles are collected on a
age radial path. The generic acceleration (a) equation can be written membrane (i.e., Whatman membranes, GE Healthcare) at the out-
as [22] let stream of the cyclone, and then are analyzed under the Qualit-
est Digital Microscope (Hardness Tester). In essence, the particle
dV h distribution on the sampled outlet are analyzed using a zoomed
dt ¼ ; ð13Þ
a image produced by the MH_VK_E software.
and therefore, Eq. (12) can be written as The size distribution within the sampled particles (denoted as
WAS) is used to estimate the volume of the particles, which is then
dm _ mp V h 1 dV h mp V h 1 used to estimate the mass of the sampled particles under study. On
¼ Vh ¼ ds: ð14Þ
m_ 6lprR w a 6lprR w the other hand, the overall mass of the particles deposited on the
membrane (at the cyclone outlet and the inlet) was measured after
To solve for the ratio of the mass flowrates, Eq. (14) is integrated 2 min of operation. Therefore, the size distribution obtained from
as the analyzed sample investigated under the microscope is multi-
plied by a scaling factor to obtain the real size distribution of the
mV h 1
_ out  ln m
ln m _ in ¼  S: ð15Þ inlet and outlet particles (denoted by WWS). The scaling factor is
6lprR w obtained by dividing the weight of the real sample by the weight
 W.I. Mazyan et al. / Separation and Purification Technology 182 (2017) 29–35
of the sample characterized under the microscope (i.e., weight of
100 particles for example) as
W WS
SF ¼ ; ð21Þ
W AS
where SF is the scaling factor, and WAS and WWS are the weights of
the analyzed sample and the whole sample, respectively. The solid
separation efficiency is then evaluated by comparing the count of
the outlet particles to those of the inlet particles.
 
nOutlet
eSP ¼ 1  ; ð22Þ
nInlet
In the above relation, n represents the scaled number of particles.
5. Results and discussions
The separation efficiency, esp, was studied here to evaluate the
performance of the proposed mechanism, and to compare the effi-
ciencies of different cyclone separation methods.
5.1. Conventional cyclone design
In this study, the effect of the particle diameter on the separa-
tion efficiency (esp) was investigated for the conventional cyclone
design in which the centrifugal and drag forces are the only forces
acting on the particles. As indicated by previous studies [21], con-
ventional cyclones have a higher efficiency for larger particles. Lar-
ger particles experience a larger centrifugal force, and hence are
expected to reach the outer walls faster. To verify the modeling
results, the calculated separation efficiency values from the pro-
posed model are shown in Fig. 6, and are compared with (i) the
measured values from our experimental setups (for conventional
cyclone separators) [25], (ii) the experimental results reported by
Ji et al. [26], and (iii) the analytical results of Leith and Licht [27].
As it can be seen in Fig. 6, the experimental and modeling results
for the conventional cyclones are generally in good agreement.
The observed differences between these results are mainly due to
(i) ignoring the turbulence effects, (ii) use of Stokes approximation
for the drag force evaluation, and (iii) the assumption of the spher-
ical shape of the solid particles in the mathematical model. For
these reasons the separation efficiency values obtained from the
theoretical model for the small and large particles deviate from
those obtained through the experimental results reported by Ji
et al. [26] and results obtained from our experimental setup. Tur-
bulence flow inside the cyclone separators plays a major role in
Fig. 6. Separation efficiency validation of the mathematical model with our
experimental results [25], Ji et al. experimental results [26], and Leith and Licht
modeling results [27].
33
determining the separation efficiency. Turbulence models can only
be determined numerically and not analytically. Higher values of
turbulence reduce the separation efficiency as it increases the drag
force on the particle and its neighboring ones. Since larger particles
have more tendency to create turbulence behind them, their sepa-
ration efficiency would be smaller. However, in a proposed analyt-
ical model developed based on certain approximations, the
turbulence effect cannot readily be integrated. One way to mitigate
this problem is to apply the Navier Stoke’s equations on the parti-
cles motion; however, this can be achieved through a numerical
model. The assumption of the spherical shape for smaller particles
also results in larger drag forces. For larger particles, the shape fac-
tor would have less impact on the behavior of the particles as their
weight and momentum are the main driving forces. The overesti-
mation of the separation efficiency for the large particles could
be due to neglecting the gas shear forces near the walls in the the-
oretical model. The proposed modeling results are also compared
with other modeling results of Leith and Licht [27]. The observed
difference can be due to different assumptions implemented in
the study performed by Leith and Licht, such as the assumption
of including the effect of the gas temperature inside the cyclone.
5.2. Cyclones with additional electro-coat process
As described in Section 2, when a radial electric field is created
in the cyclone, the charged particles experience an electrostatic
force towards the wall. This additional electrostatic force decreases
the separation time, and hence, enhances the efficiency. The mag-
nitude of this electrostatic force versus the particle diameter is
shown in Fig. 7 for the electric field of E = 0.05 N/C. The increase
in the overall force applied to the particle in the radial direction
is expected to accelerate the separation process and increase the
separation efficiency. As it can be seen in Fig. 7 the electrostatic
force increases at a faster rate compared to that of the centrifugal
force. As a result, the capture efficiency of the dust particles
increases, as seen in Fig. 8. Although the electrostatic force is
higher for larger particles, the resulting acceleration is lower
because of the larger mass and the drag force, as it can be seen
from Eq. (2); therefore, the ‘enhancement’ in the separation effi-
ciency as the result of the additional electrostatic force decreases
as the size of the particles increases.
The experimental results obtained using the electrostatic
charge approach show a promising enhancement in the solid par-
ticle separation. As seen in Fig. 8, the maximum error between the
theoretical and experimental electrostatic charge efficiencies is 4%
for 4-lm particles. However, the trend in the experimental e-
coating results does not follow the exact trend observed in the
results of the proposed e-coating analytical model. Predominantly,
this could be due to the fact that charged particles lose their charge
2.0
Centrifugal Force
1.5 Electrostac Force (E=0.05 N/C)
Force (nN)
1.0
0.5
0.0
3 5 7 9 11
Diameter (µ
µm)
Fig. 7. Electrostatic force compared to centrifugal force.
34 W.I. Mazyan et al. / Separation and Purification Technology 182 (2017) 29–35
Fig. 8. Separation efficiency enhancement due to the electrostatic forces in the conventional cyclone setup.
Table 1
Cost for the proposed process.
Enhancement Electric field Current required
process requirements
Electric Field 0.05 N/C 10.6 A (assuming 3  105 mho/m conductivity and 1.5 cm wire
radius)
within 1–2 min. Therefore, there is a higher tendency for larger
particles to become loose and escape with the gas flow after partial
loss of their charge (this can be seen in the e-coating experimental
efficiency values for larger particles). One possible solution to mit-
igate this problem is the addition of an adhesive thin layer inside
the cyclone walls. As the particles reach the outer walls they
adhere even when they lose their charge with time. The electro-
coating process has another effect: it increases the humidity inside
the cyclone. It has been previously shown [28] that an increase in
humidity leads to particle aggregation (especially for small parti-
cles) and therefore an increased separation efficiency [28] (as it
can be seen in the experimental results obtained for smaller
particles).
Overall, the addition of these EH forces increases the overall
cyclone separation efficiency for a wide range of particle sizes com-
pared to the conventional method. This complimentary method, in
particular, offers higher efficiencies for smaller particles, which are
the sizes limiting the efficiency of the conventional cyclones.
Therefore, the implementation of this separation mechanism in
current cyclone designs could provide a powerful tool for separa-
tion of the smaller particles with a high efficiency. This design
can play an influential role in non-flammable separation indus-
tries, such as nitrogen-solid and air-solid separation processes.
6. Apparatus cost
There are many factors which determine the total cost required
for the electro-coating process [29]. Two major items contributing
to the total cost are the electric power consumption and the
electro-coat material. In this study, a voltage of 30 kV was applied
across the paint which would require a current of 3 A if the electric
paint (i.e., the material with 1000 Ohm resistance value) is used as
a resistance medium [30]. In addition to the electro-coating pro-
cess cost, the total cost accompanying the generation of the electric
field should also be considered. Table 1 shows the relative running
costs of using the enhancement process proposed here. A compres-
sor station has a maximum rated capacity of 1680 kW h per day
[31]. The additional electro-coating process cost (compared to
Running Cost/Day Powder Cost/
[32] liter
$62.58 USD $2 USD
the conventional separation process) includes a $63/day running
cost and a $2/liter coating-material cost. This additional cost can
be justified by the high efficiency enhancement that can be
achieved through the application of the electric field.
7. Conclusions
In this work, the feasibility of using electro-hydrodynamic (EH)
forces to enhance the efficiency of solid-gas separation in cyclone
scrubbers was investigated. The modeling results indicate that
spraying the dust particles (as they enter the cyclone) with an
electro-coat further increases the particle separation efficiency,
particularly for smaller particles, as compared to the current
cyclone designs. Ultimately, the proposed method would provide
a powerful enhancement process, save maintenance costs (by
reducing the number of escaping particles damaging the down-
stream equipment), facilitate maintenance, and minimize hazards
on the downstream equipment in oil and gas, refinery, chemical
and polymer industries. Although the proposed model enhances
the separation efficiency and reduces the maintenance costs of
downstream equipment, it increases the running cost of the treat-
ment process marginally.
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