An efficient single-stage wet electrostatic precipitator for fine and nanosized particle control

In this study, an efficient parallel-plate single-stage wet electrostatic precipitator (wet ESP) with a width of 75 mm, effective precipitation length of 48 mm and gap of 9.0 mm was designed and tested to control fine and nanosized particles without the need of rapping. The collection plates are made of sand-blasted copper plates coated with TiO2 nanopowder instead of hydrophilic membranes. Three gold wires (diameter: 100 μm) were used as the discharge electrodes and a pulse jet valve was used to regularly purge the wires. The design of the present wet ESP is aimed at solving the problems of traditional dry ESPs: reduction of the collection efficiency due to particle deposition on the discharge electrodes and collection electrodes, back corona, and particle re-entrainment. The collection efficiency at initially clean and heavy particle loading conditions was tested and compared to a similar dry ESP. Experimental results showed that when the wet ESP was initially clean, the particle collection efficiency ranged from 96.9-99.7% for particles ranging from 16.8 to 615 nm in electrical mobility diameter at an aerosol flow rate of 5 L/min (residence time of 0.39 s) and an applied voltage of 4.3 kV. After heavy loading with TiO2 nanopowder about 1.2±0.06 g/plate, the collection efficiency of the present wet ESP for corn oil particles was shown to reduce only slightly to 94.7-99.0% for particles from 16.8 to 615 nm in diameter.