Particulate Matter

and its Removal

03/18/24
Particulate Matter – Overview
• Can be solid or liquid particles

• Usually defined in terms of PM10 and PM2.5 where the

subscript refers to the diameter of the particle in microns
 10 or 2.5

• Reduces visibility in the atmosphere

• Causes health problems related to the respiratory

system and circulatory system
Relative sizes of particles in air
Relative sizes of particles in air

PM10

PM2.5
Particulate Matter Standards
• High-volume samplers measured PM by Total Suspended
Particulate Matter (TSP). TSP usually less than 25-50 μg/m3.
Concentrations measured usually around 260 μg/m3 .

• Based on research in the 1960s and 1970s, the human

respiratory system was found to be affected by PM that was
finer than what high-volume samplers measured.

• A new standard based on PM10 was established using a 24-

hour concentration of 150 μg/m3.
 Particulate Matter Standards
– EPA in 1997 as amended 2006
The EPA set a new stricter standard that regulated fine particulate
matter (PM2.5) in 1997: 65 μg/m3 measured over a 24-hour period and
15 μg/m3 averaged over a year. The EPA announced in 2006 that it
revised the level of the 24-hour PM-2.5 standard to 35 micrograms per
cubic meter (µg/m3) and retained the level of the annual PM-2.5
standard at 15 µg/m3.
The EPA announced the designations for nonattainment for the PM-2.5
2006 Standard, October 8, 2009. The current number of areas that
violate the PM-2.5 2006 Standard is 31 and the number of counties that
violate is currently 120. A map of the EPA's PM2.5 designations for
nonattainment can be reviewed by clicking here.
Non-attainment areas: PM 2.5
Yesterday

http://www.airnow.gov/
 Key to air quality levels
Air Quality Index
Numerical
Levels of Health Meaning
Value
Concern
Air quality is considered satisfactory, and air pollution
Good 0 to 50
poses little or no risk
Air quality is acceptable; however, for some pollutants
there may be a moderate health concern for a very
Moderate 51 to 100
small number of people who are unusually sensitive to
air pollution.
Unhealthy for Members of sensitive groups may experience health
101 to 150
Sensitive Groups effects. The general public is not likely to be affected.
Everyone may begin to experience health effects;
Unhealthy 151 to 200 members of sensitive groups may experience more
serious health effects.
Health alert: everyone may experience more serious
Very Unhealthy 201 to 300
health effects
Health warnings of emergency conditions. The entire
Hazardous 301 to 500
population is more likely to be affected.
Non-attainment areas: PM 2.5
Today
Polk County Health Department
– Polk County Air Quality
Takes PM readings every 24 hours

Weighted annual mean PM 2.5 = 10 μg/m3

(http://www.city-data.com/city/Des-Moines-Iowa.html)

Link:
http://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow
.showmap&pollutant=PM2.5
PM 2.5 in Iowa yesterday
PM 2.5 in Iowa last year
Sources of PM
• motor vehicles
• wood burning stoves and fireplaces
• dust from construction, landfills, and
agriculture, mining
• wildfires and brush/waste burning
• industrial sources
• windblown dust from open lands
 Health Effects
• Aggravates conditions such as asthma, bronchitis,
emphysema

• Can trigger asthma attacks

• Makes it difficult to breathe

• Can cause premature death in elderly people or

people with heart disease and respiratory diseases
• Can cause future health problems in children (such as
asthma, increased illness)
 Effects on Visibility

• Most haze is not natural, it is caused by air pollution

• Air pollution, especially particulate matter, scatters and

absorbs light
• Sulfates particles are very effective in scattering light,
especially in humid conditions
Denver, CO, (top) and Great Smokey Mountains National Park (bottom)
in good visibility and bad visibility
 Cleaning up
Particulate Matter
– Control Equipment

• Gravity and Inertial Separators

• Mechanical Collectors (Cyclones)
• Scrubbers
• Electrostatic Precipitators
• Fabric Filters
Type 1:

Gravity & inertial separator

 Gravity settler

Gravity Settlers

• Gravity settlers operate by allowing the effluent gas to

expand into a large chamber. This reduces the gas
velocity and causes the particles to settle out.

• The important factors in settling chamber designs are

the surface area available for sedimentation, the
terminal settling speed of the particles and the gas flow
rate.
 Archimedes’s
Archimedes’s Principle
Principle

Examination of the nature of buoyancy shows that the

buoyant force on a volume of water and a submerged object
of the same volume is the same. Since it exactly supports
the volume of water, it follows that the buoyant force on any
submerged object is equal to the weight of the water
displaced. This is the essence of Archimedes principle.
Analysis of
Forces Acting
On a Settling
Determining
Particle
the terminal
settling
velocity of a
particle
Expressing
Terminalthe terminal
Velocity settling
of a Particle
velocity of a particle
An expression for Vs from the submerged weight of
the particle, W, and the fluid drag force, D

The drag force on a particle is given by

D = CDg Ap Vt2/2

The suspended weight of the particle can be expressed as

W = ( - g)g s

Since D = W, the above, after substituting A p and p for particle diameter d

_______________
Vt = / 4 ( - g) gd
 Stokes’s Law

Re < 1, CD = 24 /Re

Vs = g ( -g) d2
18 

Vs = g  d2
18 
Pathways
of particles
around
media
particles
A B

C
Gravity settler
 Gravity settler

Baffle chamber
• Another type of inertial separating system causes the
gas to change direction by means of baffles. Both the
baffle chamber and the settling chamber are seldom
used in modern gas cleaning particle because they
require a large area.

• In almost very case, a cyclone would provide better

collection efficiency.
 Gravity settler

Baffle
Chamber
 Gravity settler

Louvre chamber
• An extension of the baffle principle, which increases the
inertial separation of particles, is the use of banks of small
baffles which split the gas flow as well as changing its
direction.

• These baffles, which are normally referred to as louvers or

chevrons, are occasionally used for dust control , but much
more commonly to catch large droplets carried over from
cooling towers or wet scrubbers and for demisting duties
generally.
 Gravity settler

Industrial applications
(1) The combination settling chamber and
cooling device has been used in the metal
refining industry to partially collect large
PM and to reduce the gas temp before
entering the final collection device
(2) Arsenic trioxide from smelting arsenical
copper ores has often been collected in
brick settling chambers known as
“Kitchen”
 Gravity settler

Industrial applications
(3) In the manufacture of various foodstuffs, simple
settlement is the first step in dust recovery,
achieved by spraying the condensed liquids into
large chambers. The effluent air is then passed to
second-stage cleaners (cyclone) and the exhaust
re-circulated to the spray chambers.
(4) Power and heating plants may employ settling
chambers upstream of multiple cyclone units.
Quite often they are used to collect large unburned
carbon particles and re-inject them into boiler
 Gravity settler

Advantages
• Low cost of construction and maintenance
• few maintenance problems
• Relatively low operating pressure drops, in
the range of approximately 0.1in H2O
• Temperature and pressure limitations
imposed only by the materials of
construction used
• Dry disposal of solid particulate
 Gravity settler

Disadvantages

• Large space requirement

• Relatively low overall collection

efficiencies (typical 20 - 60 %)
Type 2: Mechanical
Collectors – Cyclones

Specific types include:

• Involute cyclone separator
• Vane-axial centrifugal separator
• Large-diameter cyclones
• Small-diameter multi-cyclones
 Mechanical Collectors –
Cyclones

Advantages: Good for larger PM

Disadvantages: Poor efficiency for finer PM

Difficult removing sticky or wet PM

Cyclones -
A Large-
Diameter
Involute
Cyclone
Separator
Involute Inlets
Cyclones - A small-diameter vane-
axial centrifugal separator
 Type 3: Scrubbers
Specific types include:
• Venturis • Ejector

• Impingement and
• Mobile Bed
Sieve Plates
• Spray Towers • Catenary Grid

• Mechanically Aided • Froth Tower

• Condensation Growth • Oriented Fiber Pad

• Packed Beds • Wetted Mist Eliminators
Scrubbers
Advantages: Good efficiency, can
collect (potentially explosive)
gaseous pollutants as well as PM,
small size
Disadvantages: Requires a lot of
water, generates waste stream
Venturi Scrubbers
Type 4: Electrostatic Precipitators

Types include:

• Dry, negatively charged

• Wet-walled, negatively charged

• Two-stage, positively charged

Electrostatic Precipitators

Advantages: Good efficiency

Disadvantages: Dependent upon
resistivity of PM, cannot be used
around explosive gases
Wet Electrostatic Precipitators
 Electrostatic
Plates

List of suppliers of equipment

http://www.eco-web.com/cgi-local/sfc?a=index/index.html&b=index/category/4.4.html
Type 5: Fabric Filters / Baghouses

Types include:

• Reverse air-type

• Pulse jet
Fabric Filters / Baghouses

Advantages: Good efficiency for

various sizes of particles
Disadvantages: Not to be used
around corrosive substances,
explosive gases, or sticky and wet
particles
Technology - Media Cross Section

View in "Z" direction with no cover sheet View in cross-sectional direction

50x magnification
50x magnification

• Three-dimensional placement and immobilization of functional particles

• Maximization of accessibility to particles with tortuous void space
• Low pressure drop
• Combi media capability for particulate filtration
Growth of Fungi
On Inside of
Filter Material
Here: Aspergillus sp.
Sources

1. EPA

2. American Lung Association

3. Polk County Health Department

Assignment: Particulates

Do Problems at the end of Chapter 5

5-3, 5-5, 5-23, 5-53

Hand in by Thursday, February 10, 2010