INDIABOILER DOT COM

TUTORIAL FOR SECOND CLASS BOILER ENGINEER’S PROFICIENCY EXAMINATION

DLP/BOE-II/ 1- 01092001

CHAPTER - 26
Electrostatic Precipitators
1. Introduction:
Electrostatic Precipitators are used for collection of fine ash particles from flue gases
of boilers.
Flue gas is cooled to as low a temperature as possible by its heat having been
recovered for superheating steam, heating feed water and heating combustion air
being fed to boiler furnace. This serves two purposes namely, firstly heat recovery
results in increase of efficiency and secondly reduction of temperature due to heat
recovery makes ash particles less electrically resistive so that they respond better to
electrostatic collection process.

2. Basic Principle of ESP:

Electrostatic Precipitator functions on the principle of attraction between particles
having opposite charge. For this purpose, Flue Gas is made to pass through a
succession of chambers (called ‘field’) made of steel ducting material with vertical
plates suspended from top such that they do not obstruct the flow of Flue Gases but
horizontally divide the flow in a large number of parallel paths. Typically the space
between two successive plates is 600 mm. These plates are called ‘Collector
Electrodes or Collector Plates’. Between these Collector Plates are rods or helical coil
shaped components, which are electrically insulated from the Collector Plates and are
suspended through insulating bushings from top of the chamber of field. These
components are called ‘Emitting Electrodes’. The Emitting Electrodes are Negatively
charged with the help of a system of High Voltage Transformer and Rectifiers.
Typically the Voltage at which the Emitting Electrodes are charged is of the order of
25 to 125 kilo Volts dc. As the flue gas containing ash particles passes between the
Collector Plates, the ash particles get negatively charged by the Emitting Electrodes
and as a result they are attracted towards the Collector Plates and get deposited on
them. From time to time the Collector Plates are rapped with the help of a hammer
arrangement due to which the collected ash on the Collector Plates falls down into ash
collecting hoppers situated below the chamber.
From the above description it becomes clear that the slower the flow of flue gas
through the arrangement of Emitting Electrodes and Collector Plates the higher the
ESP collection efficiency. Alternatively, the larger the area of Collector Plates the
larger the collection efficiency of the ESP.
ESP size is often measured in terms of Specific Collection Area (SCA). The Specific
Collection Area (SCA) has units, of square feet per 1,000 actual cubic feet per minute
(acfm) of flue gas flow. The SCA for the required performance can be determined by
using the Deutsch-Anderson equation, which relates the collection efficiency (E) to
the unit gas flow rate, the particulate’s effective migration velocity and the collection
surface area:
1 - E = e (-wA/V)
or
A = [ ln (1/(1-E)]. V/w
Where,

1
 INDIABOILER DOT COM
TUTORIAL FOR SECOND CLASS BOILER ENGINEER’S PROFICIENCY EXAMINATION
DLP/BOE-II/ 1- 01092001

E = ESP removal efficiency, %

= 100 [(Inlet dust loading - Outlet dust loading)/(Inlet dust loading)]
w = effective migration velocity, ft/min or (m/s)
A = Collection surface area, ft2 or (m2)
V = gas flow, ft3/min or (m3/s)
Because of the assumption about an effective migration velocity to make use of this
sizing equation, the empirical nature of ESP design is obvious.