Static or pulse clean: which is best? Frank W Muscroft, EW Fitertechnik, Diez, Germany (frank muscroft@gtap.com.au) Four be fully evaluated operating cost of after system for 200) MW class gas turbine can ex: ceed £100 milion aver the life ofthe plant, miking correct se lection of the iter type essential. IF a pulse clean filter system is contemplated, the capi faleost isarcnnd 40¥morethana similasized static filter system and the operating costs are rch higher; thus the deeision to sea pulse ‘lean system requires careful analysis (OF the consklertble variety of static filer systems availabe, the static system consi Fue 2. Conical nd eyEndical parts fx pulse tar | Stale ter system cred here will be the two oF three stage type ‘comprising weather protection of some type, a prestiter (rough filter) and a fina iter ice using thin medtia formed into nominal 25mm deep mink-pleats, The pulse lean sys tem considered wil be the typical two sa {ype using weather protection of some type followed by aeylindrcal and/oe conical filter with a different type of thin media again formed into nominal 50mm deep pleas Typleal examples of these types of fers are shown in Figuees Land 2 Filter testing Discussion of filters and mach of the informa tion in sales literature involves the use of test ‘ata, some of which fs obsained very loosely in accordance with cern west standard, There area number of international and ni Table 1. Particle sizes compared for vai Sd petra) ty welt rd Da Cy ed 0 cl Be a oo ers are a major lifetime cost for gas turbines and the choice of filter - static vs pulse clean ~ has major ications, The author finds that pulse clean systems rarely function as intended and static fiters are usually preferable. tional sie filter testing standards, however there is no national or international standard for testing the efficiency and operiional Functionality of pulse clean filters. The only independent standard known to the author for testing the basie operational capability fof puke clean iters (not the fitrat efficiency) 6 2 private company test proce Arabian American Oil ‘ure, that of the ‘Company (ARAMCO Bat, in my. opinion, this. st rich to he desired. Forstatieair ter systems ‘most nitional standards are based on, of are endorsements af the folowing: Europe. ‘EN 779 latest revisions 2001), Partentate ‘air ters for general ventilation ‘dotermmation of filration performance + EN 1822 latest revision, MPPS for bigh efficiency MEPA and ULPA filters USA + ANSV/ASHRAE 5221-1992, Gravimetric land dust spot procedures for generat rpose pters ‘ANSI/ASHRAE 52.2199, Particle size ‘efficiency for general purpose filters + MILSTD-282, 1956, 03 micron DOP testing for HEPA fers and various HEST recommended practices. Sace there are no national or international standards for testing the pulse cleaning cape bility of pulse clean filter systems, iis ex tremely dificult for any buyer to ensure that the system wil function properly or in accor dance with the manufactucer's claims in rel ‘don to the self cleaning function. In addition {o this, ifte ARAMCO standard is used toe pulsing capabilities, the results Will be of He value in non-andstorm conditions as this testis conducted only with coarse contami ‘ane material with dust storm concentrations The ARAMCO test ses AC Fine test dist wt 10% sodium chloride (aot normal airborne sale Thich hehaves diferenty) and this dust was designed by the SAE Gociety of Automotive Engineers (US)) 10 test automotive ir cleaners for off oad commercial vehicles, This dist very coarse compared to ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Aircon: ditioning Engineers) dust orasborne dust and ‘was originally known a8 "Anzona Road Test Teer ry Se a Ses a ra 3 ws A 78 7 Ss 16mm December 2003 Mast Foner Systems 19Dust’, which fs where it was originally sourced for testing of dit road truck ar cleaners. This bears no felation whatever to airbome dus gested by gas turbines. leaning a pulse clean fiter with coarse dense material is 2 simple matter since the heavy dust panicies are easy to shake loose from the hier meala and they are able to mi ‘in a momentum to move agains: the incom Jing ir and not be drawn back onto che fle. Where there are no coarse dust particles and ‘only small or low density particles such a5 in rr, wetor snowanclice cogitions, the pulse ‘lean filter cannot get rid small paricleseom the media and even iit could, it would aot be le to maintain a sufficiently kage reverse ait Now to remove the particles rom tbe influence ‘ofthe ineamingae-In other words, iFany ight ‘weight particle are pulsed away. they will Immediately drawn back inc the filter as soon asthe pulse flow ceases. Professor KT Whitby ef al, made an exten sive survey of aibome dist throughout the US for the American Society of eating Refigeration and Airconditioning Engineers to obtain a dust distripution fora proposed sir filter test dust. Testing a filter with naturally ‘ecurring airborne dust 10 a practical final pressure differential would take a long time (Ground 1 year or more) and so ASHRAE de cided upon a substitute test dust fed at accel erated rates, Professor Whitby found that on days without wind, the panicle size distribu tion at various places around the USA was re smarkably similar and later research has shown this to be ere in most locations around the ‘word, The greatest variance in particle size is below 1 micrometre (um) and these are cre- tec) mostly by human actiity and form the bulk of airborne pollution and compressor fouling material ingested by a gas eurine. A comparison of the Whitby dust survey ASHRAE test dust and SAE J726 AC fine test ‘dusts is given in Table Table I shows chat neither the ASHRAE nor AC fine vest dust bears any similarity to real air ‘bore dusts determined by Professor Whit: ‘Test data presented later show that filter ek ment efficiency test results for new filters and those loaded with test dust ean vary by 20 10 35 eiciency percentage points, meaasng that from 20 0 35 elfciency percentage pointsare duc tothe test dust and not the filter, Since the test dust does not bear any relation to real ae borne dust, testing synthetic dustioaded filters ja waste of time For practical applications, consequently only the initial efficiency the ef ficiency of 1 new and clean filter) should be consideredsince te hiterwillneverbeloaded imtetmoleclir | Fgre Clan and tal arormaneo sate Mr wth wet ss Rie ‘dion (dependent test boratory) Figure 4. Clean and inl perornace of apse clan ie carrie 9 ‘meu toned cals an plyesar (ndopendent test abratry) ss 1007 0 Wax AG fre st | so |_[—Sean sore] [| | sss tema #70. « presure los 2 co {| Frat 7502 oe os pressure drop ie —Glean 256 Pa 20 pressure loss = Lad ——Final 1000 Pa a z pressure drop on 1 10 * er 7 0 Eeeich oka niarea Particle size, micron ‘with test east and may neve results other than when the fiter is new. Dust holding capacity using syretic vest dusts is also of no practical application value since the synthetic tes dust does not exist outside the Ihboratory and the pressure ise characterstics ‘ofthe iter wil be completely diferent when using real world dust. It should be noted that EN 1822 docs not use atest dust and only the ‘lean efficiency (the worst elfcieney a good filter will ever have) is measured. should be noted also that in relation to Table 1, that par- ticles made by humansare normally nthe par ticle sizes helow 1 jim and so heavily polluted ‘ities wil have w higher percentage ofthe dust intheslzes below I ym. Trshouldalso be noted. that compressor fouling i caused by the par ticle sizes below 5 um and essentially all of these are handled by the final Blee ‘Owing tothe lack ofa suitable national or international standard for testing pulse clean flvers, esting s undertaken entirely atthe dis- cretion of the maxafacturer and is normally arsed out loosely in accordance with ASHRAE 52,1, with the substitution of AC fine test dust forthe ASHRAE test dust. There sal rmost never any testing ofthe pulse cleaning Capabllties or the pressure diferemtal chat facterstes ofeach pulse cyele. tt is automat ‘ally assumed by users thar the pulsing system. ‘actually anetions properly and the differemtial pressure retums 10 «figure close to the clean Aer pressure differential, have conducted pulse clean ftertests with ASHRAE and AC fine dusts, investigated many field installations and have concluded tha the majority of pulse clean filter installations sim ply do not function propery Mechanisms of filtration Media type ai fikers employ the following ‘mechanismsto remove particulatesfromthe air + Serining. ‘+ Impiction and interception. + Dithision + Hlecrostatic attraction Staining means thatthe particulate being captured is captured on the surface of the ‘meet. To Go this the particles must be larger than the openings inthe media and staining therefore is limited to panicles around 10 um. ‘orlarger, Sraiing is therefore supposed to be the method of operation ofthe 59 called sue face medit used in polse clean filters Imptction and interception oecur when a par ticle collides with a fibre withia the depeh of the media and the particles are retained to the Aibresby the Forces oF Faure 3, Boctron microscope photographs of ne, ‘loon mea (lf) and eantamiated rela rah) traction, Panicles eaptured by impaction and interception are eypeally above 1 jm, with ve locity playing an smpostant role. Difusion is the capture of particles on a fibre by vine of ‘eddy diffusion and Brownian motion causing 4 smal particle ta contact ar move close 10 fide. Paricles ate setsned to the fibre by pre ‘ously mentioned foreesandthe particlescap- tured by difsion vary from the smallest particles that can exis up to around 0.31 um. ‘The efficiency of capture by diffusion increas. ‘esas parce size decreases and s0 the mink ‘mum efficiency size is approximately 0.3 jm. Hleetrostatie charge isnot considered since the environments around power stations have copious quantities of unburned hydrocarbons, therefore 100% synthetic sate Biter media sing electrostatic capture isnot suitable Pulse clean filter media often contain around 10% of synthetic electrostatically charged ma terial however tis does not have a marked ef fect on the tration elficiency and is used for ‘media mscchanical properties, Figure 3 shows an electron microscope pho- togeaph of new and clean media on the eft and contaminated medi on the right, The fibre d- ames are ftom 1 to 5 ym and many sub ik fron panicles are firmly attached tothe fibres. ‘This photograph will help readers picture the lrnpossibty of capturing sub micron particles ‘onthe surface of mediaby stainingifthe media isto have a practically useable pressure diler ‘ential, The important factors that all small pa Heles are captured inside the mela and not on thesurfice unless cher isa heavy coating of st which does not happen wthouta dust storm. Pulse clean put to the test ‘The frst on site fil testing ofthe pulse clean filter protarype wis undertiken becween 15 February and 6 March, 1976, ia Saudi Arabia, 20 edo Paya Sysiems Becombor 2008que 7, Peat on the inside (utet face) ‘of crear puse clean Mer cartrige (witout the support mest) Close examination ofthe test data presented in the original paper (Neaman and Anderson, ASME paper SOGTSS, March 1980) shows that the system as tested was ot efficient. ut pals clean fer systems were adopced for use fn gas turbines 10 overcome problems of st tic iter blockage during dus storm activity ia the Middle East and the system did wel ‘The Midlle Eastera desert dust som env ronment can have dist concentrations of 700 mg/m with partite sizes upto 500 jm and e= sentially no moisture in thea. Thisisin marked ‘contrist o environments elsewhere, especial Ty rural locations, with dust-concenteatons From 001 to 0.15 mgm’ and particle sizes ip the range 0.01 to 3 um, together with moisture ‘com ran, meting snow or humidity. Even in the Middle East, rypcalaieborne dust concen: teationsare in the 0.1 0.2 ma/an® range most ‘of the year, With the corresponding small ai bome particulate size and under the conditions typically encountered the effectiveness of Dlbe clean fier systems is inadequate. Titer media for static ters equi only that the dust he filtered out of the air as i passes through the media, As discussed previously conse dust of 1Omicronandahove seaptured ator near the sure of the media with smal er panicles heing exptured below the surface ofthe media, Pulse cleaa filter media have spe cial requirements because if dust is captured below the surface of the mealim it will be trapped inside the medium and eannot be ppulsed away during the cleaning process, ‘Consequenity all the dust captured by'a pulse clean filter must take place on the surface of the media, This fs easy in a dust storm envi- ooment since coarse dust quickly builds up fon the filter surface and the dust can be used to do further fering of smal parc Polse clean filter media use 4 base support seructureof couse, ineicent mecdaand ase face coating of extremely fine fibres on the aie proach surface. These fine fbes act as Sirinets and collect course particles of dust on the surface and do not capture smaller part ‘les, as Uiscussed previously. The problem ‘with this is that the pulse clean filter will be very inefficient until the dus i built up on the sutfac, but this was overcome by seeding! of throwingdustomto the ters when theengine ‘was stated ifthe cient noted this problem, In a dust storm environment this system works ‘ell, but clearly the system will notwork prop ‘aly in normal operating conditions through ‘Out most ofthe World Figure 4 shows test results from an indepen. lent test laboratory on a common pulse clean liter cartridge medium of blended elluloseand polyester Figure 5 shows the same data For ‘95% ASHIAE cist spot efficiency static Filter ‘mead. of wet laid glass fibre. The efficiency ‘ofthe new pulse clean filter caridge saround 10% at0.33 um and about 17% at 1.0 ym, com. pared with around 6606 a 0.35 um and 99% for TO jm for the state filter media, Clearly the pulse lean iter will every poor flter fics ‘ot quickly loaded with dust Farther, the dust, Joadngiguresin hegraphsshow thatthe pulse clean filter requires 28 times more dust than the static ter to each its peak efficiency, con sequently whatever the operating conditions ane the pulse clean fier wil ake 28 times longer to reach its best efficiency ‘Operating experience compared Satie iter elements have heen used far many cusand when properly applied have shown fn operating life of around 32 000 hours in ‘lean environments to around 8900 hours in ‘moze polluted areas, There are hundreds of sucess installations worldwide and any problems can usally be traced to poor appli tation engineering ot poor quality. Ta eegions Suibjet co dust storms stati filters ean present {problem unless adequate protection from high concentrations of coarse dust is provided. unin many installations pulse clean Hikers are used a a presilter for dst storm condiions, and static Filters are used 38 second sage oF tion co ensure tit the high level of ‘on efficiency required by modem, high tes perature gas eurbines,& provided | unpolluted dry some efficiency rating and withthe same media area Figure 8 Congarison between pulse clean an static mina ter of the desert areas. pulse ‘lean filters have been shown to function as Intended: that is, 10 keep the air ter sys tem unlocked. in a dust storm conditions (not necessarily to pro- vide high eicieney fk tration), However, the Jack of large quantities “of coarse dust coupled with the presence of inoisture ad airbome uunburmed hydroear hhons cremes serous problems for pulse lean systems. Water, humid’ anl unburned hydrocarbons coagulate fine dust and make it Slicky in nature, especially the hydrocarbons The pulse lean system eanaot release this eon taminant from the med and the filter will fot clean asa consequence [ave visited and examined lage number of pulse clean installations around the world ind have yet to see an installation where pis clean system works property (as adver Used inthe titrate), except when located ia ‘clean, dy, desert environment Typically. ip non desert area, the pressure titferential ofthe pulse clean fer system in creases very rapily and is not reduced by op ecition of the pulsing system At best, it Stables fora short period and then begins to increase again. In one particular nondesert in ‘sallation the pressure differential across the Pulse clean iter system rises to 20 kPa over Period of eight months and despite repeated pulsing ofthe fitersysiem no reduction in pres- sure differentials apparent. par from ihecost ‘of reduced output, higher fuel consumption and reduction in gas turbine elfcieney due to the very high pressures, the eost of filters fover the fe of the plant will be about 2400009, based on typieal operating figures. Another pulse clean installation is tiring 4 liu etter, che pressure los rises 101.5 KPa ‘over period of twelve months, This is typical ‘ofthe experience with many pulse clean filters including installations in the deserts of the Mile Eas, where installations Te known reach pressure difereitils of 1.5 t0 2.25 kPa Jn several months despite continuots pulsing, Desert areas such as the UAE, Said Arabia and elsewhere have sullered problems that cannot be cared! by pulsing. This fs due to the devel- ‘opment of eles and industry, which is pollu Jing the —almoxphere with unburned hnydrocarbons.and moisture inthe atmosphere ‘dae tothe proximity of lage bodies of water forthe sea, These environmental conditions ate rendering the pulse clean system ineffective ‘The number of plans where the pulse clean flrers have presented stich a problem isin the hnundieds and the plane sizes are mostly in the baseload power station eateuory, ie combined cyele plants from 304 NW to 3000 MW, with perhaps two to eight machines per plat By contrast, “min:-plea” state ter systems with wet laid las bre mela inthe same re Boas have in excess of 15.000 hours service Pulse clean design issues Why do pulse clean ier elements behave in this way? One aspect has been discussed and that s chat when there are only retvely fine particles in the atmosphere, the particles are ‘captured below the surface ofthe media and ‘cannot be pulsed away and so the eiffereaial pressure continues to rise irsespective of how muck pulsing is applied. A further pect of the problemisthe geometry ofthe fiter pleats Stati fier systems have the same pleat spac ‘ng on the inlet and outlet fcesand hence the flow is stable and balanced, Pulse clean filter ccaruidges, however, have very much smaller spaceson the outlet side than the inl side and {isis due tothe method of spacing the pleats Aphotographofthepleatsinastavemini pleat filter is shown i Figure 6 and a photograph of the pleats on the inside (outlet face) of 8 c= cular pulse clean filter cartridge (oithout the Support mesh is shown in Figure 7. The dit ference in outlet area can be clearly sees. December 2003 odors Power Systems 2.Bier AKTORIK SIPOS 5 Flash Go easy on your valve! Electric actuators with integrated communications and power electronics for valve automation Our highlight: Actuator control system SIMA for typically 20 to 60 actuators for remote actuator parameterization, control and diagno: SIPOS Aktorik GmbH DonaustraBe 120 D-90451 Nurnberg Tol.: +49 (0) 911 /63284-0 Fax; +49 (0) 911 /6 3284-111 E-mail: info@sipos.de Internet: www.sipos.de Enter 11 0n Enquiry Card Figure # shows comparison becween t pulse clean and statie min pleat ier of the ‘ame efficiency rating and with the same media area, Ieean be seen that pressure Ui ferential ess oa fat sacets of media ential and in fact one i on top of the fother in the figure, Because of the pleat fgcometry the pressure differential of the Clean fiers is ridcally diferent with the pulse clean fiter being much more sensi veto velocity (low rate)chnges han the static filter, Finally, when the Ohers a foaded sith dust the sltaton is mu swore with the shape ofthe pressure erential curve of the pulse clean filter ap proxching the vertical, This demonstrates fri pulse clean filters that do aot clean ‘when pase ave an extremely short ie Figure 9 shows a photogriph of an op- crating pase filter caine where airisace ‘lly Nowingintothe eutridge, However, the pubessstemeannot generate sulicient ‘low to cise the fine material bridging cross the mesh, This isa result ofthe very Steep pressure differential curve, shown in Figure, wheresmallchangesin low show {massive iperease in pressure diferential and lite oF no How can occur asa tes Pulse clean dust loading and pressure loss Two tential pulse fer eaeres, as ued for the previously mentione te = fies, were tested with AC ie and ASHRAF tes dts (o ASHRAE 52.1 and to 830 Pa final_pressre diferent “The fers showedacstboldingexpacity of 4860 zm FAC ine and 411 gm of ASHRAE symhet ie est ds. The on dference between the wo tes dusts ste 25% by weight of fine carbon ble paris and 5% cotton lees reuied inthe ASHIRAE tes st I ‘would appear therefore that she ie par {esof ctbon back have redaced the dst holding capaci: ba factor of 11.7. This ‘trong sgget tht pulse clean fltersare adversely alfected By the fine pails i the ASHRAF esd but tex well with AC fine west dust an this supports the oper tional explanations given eae. The mesh protection on the ue of ane pulse clean ler care and he ea dng edges ofthe peat pack sf provides refit colectorofpanicusteSumand hove captured by the impaction mech nism. The very lage bald up of eoase dst ane realy evel test laboratory fiers dug ests orn ope iter car tres in the fle. Engbvesson ck in 1956, detonated in aboratory west theimpactionof paretesofbout5 umand shove on the screens of ters aecumlite a substantial ration by weight oe test dust eolected The statiemineplex and pulse clean i tes in the previous examples demon Stated hat the pulse clean filter had an [AC Fine dust holding capacity of 4800 gm to 830 Ps an the mineplet showed an 180 gn dst holdingeapaeiyofthesame use ro the sume pressure diferent This i a weight rao of 2.88 tn vour ofthe pute clea Hterand a notional 192 fem/mt forthe pulse clean fiter and 104 f/m? for the tae er However, when the texts are duplicate swith ASHRAF tet st the resi acer Pecana ied ed Pi etd Pe ad Pe od ror trey cilferent, The pulse clean fer holds 11 gino 10 kPa and the minpeat okis 1340gm tothesame pressure. The stuation ‘scompletely reversed and te minipleat fit terfolds more dust than the pulse clean fi terbya factor of 83, Thistsa notional 164 fmm? forthe puise clean fiter and 74.4 fgnvin? for the static iter. This strona ‘demonstrates har the particles get silk fer the dust holding capacity of the pulse dean iter drops dramatically and the fter ‘eaches its ial pressure loss moze quickly ‘These tes also srongy stgest that with nommalarboredustaistrbutions, with Few Course parices, dhe pulse clean fer wil Feacha inal pressurelossmuch more quick Iy than the static minepleat. This is in fact, the cise and coincides with actu site ex perience in mos: pulse clean Mkerpowerstar tion applications, as has been described, This some reason why’ you will ony rarely ifever seca pulse filter independent ese port conducted on ASURAE syathetic test {lustinstead of ACTine. The dtaarenotsaes Iprachre fend. I's hoped that the prac- teal aspects of iter esi, dts wil be subject of fnure antl. Filter house elevation | ‘Thereisone inalaspect that should bemen: tioned in respect of combustion turbine p- plications. Themijoty of moclemlarge ess turbine pawer plas are ofthe so called! “coldennldnive'type, where the fterhouse 's elevated above the generator and in the inajontyafensestheelevationisof the order Of TO mor ayoreabove the ground In hese ‘cases the filter house will almost never see airborne particwatclagerthan 10m. Ben in sandstorm, the particulate concenrse tion at a elevation of 8m is typically only 5 of wins at 3 mand in normal wind conditions krge particles rarely reach a height of mor above, AS consequence puke clean fier systems would almost never be suitable for elevated filter houses. Staticis superior (vera thasbeendemonscaced tht pulse ‘lean filter systems are unlikely to Function ppropesly or economically in dhe majority Of applications an! that stitie media filter Systems are generally technically. and ‘commerchly beter choice