FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS

ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM

SFE 1023

ASSIGNMENT 1

TITLE SMOKE PRECIPITATORS AND

ELECTROSTATIC AIR CLEANING

PREPARED BY 1.MUHAMMAD HAFIZ BIN

JASINIH@JASRI
(E20171016369)
2. SUBHATINA BINTI MOHD AZHAR
(E20171016158)
3. SITI ANIS IZZATI BINTI AZMI
(E20171016227)
4.UMI HAJAR BINTI HASSAN
(E20171016153)
LECTURER’S NAME EN. MOHD FAUDZI BIN UMAR
 SMOKE PRECIPITATORS AND ELECTROSTATIC AIR CLEANING

Regarding to the task given, we decided to discuss about the ‘Smoke Precipitators and
Electrostatic Air Cleaning”. This application applied the concept of electrostatic. Nowadays,
the world had been exposed with the modest technology to compete with developed countries,
so, one of the technologies we might heard is an electrostatic precipitator. Basically, it uses
electrostatic force to grab and hold dust and other particles.

Furthermore, this equipment is effectively used for cleaning industrial fumes and has also
been used for residential air. It consists primarily of wires and collection plates, by high voltage
from the charge of electrostatic filed between the wires and collecting plates. Hence, the air is
purified by the process of when such as dust or even some sort of particles flows between the
collecting plates, the particles become charged and get attached to the collecting plates. Then,
the particles leaved behind while the purified air pass through as the end product.

Based on our reading, there are two types of precipitator which are dry precipitators or plate
precipitator and wet precipitators generally. The most common one is the dry precipitators.
This equipment usually contains an initial row of vertical wires, which provided the charged
particles, while the following plates are used to collect and hold the particles, as stated above.
The second one is called the wet precipitator, sometimes called a WESP (Wet Electrostatic
Precipitator). It usually used to remove liquid droplets such as gases like sulfuric acid mist,
comes from industrial steam.

Going through both of the equipment, the dry precipitator has two-stage design, which is
charging and collection of the particles, they would reduce the ozone production that might be
harmful when inhaled. Hence, it will create a clean air for people who may concerned to this
kind of situation. Next one, the wet precipitator used a tubular design that allows collected
moisture and particulates to form a thick combination, or slurry. This kind of design is created
as it is very effective to hold a high amount of moisture or contains combustible particles. They
were gathered using water sprays, irrigation or condensation which is functioning to pull the
particles from the gas stream away from the collection plates or wires.

Moving on, we are going to look further on the advantages and disadvantages of this
equipment as the present of the technology of electrostatic precipitators:
 ADVANTAGES
Small particles like smoke, mist and fly ash
could been removed effectively.
Its range of dust removal is sufficiently large
(0.01 micron to 1.00 micron).
The small dust particles below 10 microns cannot
be removed with the help of mechanical
separators and wet scrubbers cannot be used if
sufficient water is now available. Under these
circumstances, this equipment is very effective.
DISADVANTAGES
Direct current is not available with the modern
plants, therefore considerable electrical
equipment is necessary to convert low voltage
(400 V) A.C to high voltage (60000 V) D.C. This
increases the capital cost of the equipment as
high as 40 to 60 cents per 1000 kg of rated
installed steam generating capacity.

Effectively worked for high dust loaded gas (as Running charges are also considerably high as
high as 100 grams per cu. meter) the amount of power required for charging is
considerably large.

The least draught loss of this system in all forms Space required is larger than the wet system
(1 cm of water)

Tend to operate much easier. Efficiency of the collector is not maintained if the
gas velocity exceeds that for which the plant is
designed. The dust carried with the gases
increases with an increase of gas velocity.

The dust is collected in dry form and can be Closeness of the charged plates and high
removed either dry or wet condition. potential used, it is necessary to protect the entire
collector from sparking by providing a fine mesh
before the ionizing chamber. This is necessary
because even a smallest piece of paper might
cause sparking when it would be carried across
adjacent plates or wires.
Table 1: Advantages and disadvantages

Referring to the table above, it was not a comparison but it was written in a table to make it
easier to look for.

Next, there are some applications listed below that may be specifically designed in order to
meet the inquiries of certain industries or application:

1. Abrasives- baghouse fabrics are designed to withstand and capture abrasive particles.
2. Coolant and oil mist- able to filter coolant smoke and mist from metal finishing and
forming processes, and machining oil mists.
3. Explosive media- unit is capable to filter explosive dusts, mists, or fumes.
 4. Fine powders- unit is capable of filtering fine powders such as carbon black, tale,
pigments, oxides, and plastic compounding dusts.
5. Metalworking chips and fluids- unit can capture aerosols and fumes emitted by
metalworking fluid, including oils lubricants and coolants.
6. Toxic media- unit is capable of filtering toxic materials such as dust, mist, fume, or
even smoke from the air.
7. Welding fumes - unit is designed specifically for the collection of welding fumes or
dust; these may include flux recovery.

However, less serious than the ozone production, when handling the electrostatic
precipitator, the concerns are they could be challenging and messy to clean of. As the particles
of dust and smoke are collected directly inside the equipment and they are manually removed.
Hence, try to put on the face mask to avoid the very particles from breathed in. Electrostatic
precipitators for home use can collect dust, mold spores, and other large particles, but at much
lower efficiencies than a HEPA filter. And as the plates become dirty, this efficiency drops
further. An ESP can trap organic compounds and pollen molecules, but it does not effectively
capture smaller particles or gaseous chemicals. Electrostatic Precipitators vs Ionizers It’s easy
to confuse electrostatic precipitators with ionizers, but these two machines, while similar, are
different. They both charge the air, but while an electronic precipitator draws in air, charges it,
pulls out the contaminants, and releases clean air, an ionizer simply releases charges into the
surrounding room. Ionizers charge particles however to not collect anything, so the particles
simply stick to surfaces in your home. The particles may not be in the air, but they still reside
in your living space.

Apart from the various advantages and disadvantages, this apparatus works in the most
proficient way to reduce toxic levels of the environment. It has potential to take away 99.9%
of dust particles that is very beneficial for the welfare of eliminating health hazards. This help
in reduce air pollution especially for countries with large amount of factories build up like India
and Mexico.

Dry' electrostatic precipitators are used for collection of brown smoke from convertors,
furnaces and, for collection of cement dust or marl, dust from rotary furnace and cement Kilns,
lime and fired day including dust from gypsum calcining plants and can be use as hot gas filters
for roasting furnaces. The same can also be used for dust removal from metasmelting plants,
slag grinding plants, red sludge drying in the aluminium industry, in phosphate grin ding plants,
bleaching earths, with hard coal fired, brown coal fired, and black coal fired boilers with refuse
incineration; coal and coke grinding plants, with brown coal dryers. The wet electrostatic
precipitators may be used in an area of no limit. Particularly good results are obtained in dust
removal from cold and hot flame machines on cupola furnaces and electric furnaces also as de-
tarring and de-oiling precipitators.

WORKING PRINCIPLE

An electrostatic precipitator (ESP) is a device that removes dust particles from a flowing
gas (such as air) using the force of an induced electrostatic attraction (like charges repel; unlike
charges attract) Electrostatic precipitators are highly efficient filtration devices that help in
reduce air pollution.

This electrostatic precipitator work by forcing dust and air (escape from smokestack) passed
between the two oppositely charged electrodes (electric terminal).This dust then will be
ionized as the voltage is applied between the conductors is sufficiently large (30kV to 60kV
depends upon the electrode spacing).The first electrode is charged to a very high negative
voltage. This negative charge will pick up positive charge dust that passed through the
electrodes. Higher up the pipe(or futher along if it is a horizontal pipe). Meanwhile, the second
electrode consist of metal plate charged to a high positive voltage(50,000-100,000 volts is
typical).Since unlike charges attract, the negatively charged soot particles are attracted to the
positive plate and stick there. Those ionized gas then further passed through collecting unit
which consist of set of metal plates. The collecting plates have to be shaken to empty away the
soot. This process can be done either by manually(by person brushing them clean) or
automatically (by some kind of automated shaking or brushing mechanism in a process called
rapping.Alternate plates are charged and earthed. As the alternate plates are grounded, high
intensity electrostatic field exerts a force on the positive charged dust particles and drives them
towards the ground plate. The deposited dust particles are removed from the plates by giving
the shaking motion of the plates with the help of cams driving by external means. The dust
removed from the plates with the help of shaking motion is collected in the dust hoppers. Care
should be taken that the dust collected in the hopper should not be entrained in the clean gas.
Clean air then produced .Electrostatic smoke precipitators all work in essentially this way, with
dirt particles gaining an electric charge from one wire or plate before being attracted to a second
wire or plate with the opposite electric charge for collection and disposal by the temperature
and moisture content of the flue gas (low-sulfur coal burns at a lower-temperature and often
contains more moisture).

There are two types of electrostatic precipitators which are:

1) Dry electrostatic precipitator.

2) Wet electrostatic precipitator.

 Dry Electrostatic Precipitators

-The dust-bearing gas passes via a gas distributor into the electrical field formed by the
application of a high D. C. voltage between the discharge electrodes and the collecting
electrodes. In the electrical field the dust is negatively ionised and migrates to the positive
earthed collecting electrodes under the influence of the coulomb forces. A small quantity of
dust becomes positively charged by the corona discharge and migrates to the discharge
electrode. The collecting electrode system and the discharge electrode system, are both cleared
of accumulated dust by periodic knocking. The agglomerations of dust in the form of large
flakes collect in the base of the precipitator and are discharged continuously.

 Wet Electrostatic Precipitators

- As in the dry electrostatic precipitator, the crude gas enters the electrical field via a gas
distributor. In this case, the dust-bearing gas to be purified is treated by a water spray to saturate
it with water vapour before it enters the electrical field. The dust particles and water droplets
are precipitated together. The field is cleaned by flushing for short periods at intervals, with
the high voltage switched off. Operational phases when no dust is arising can conveniently be
used for the flushing periods. If dust arises continuously it is necessary to connect the fields in
series. The dust flows away in the form of muddy water and ' it can be fed to a thickener.

REFERENCES:

 JURNAL:IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Vol. 7 No. 5, October 2000
 https://www.oransi.com/page/electrostatic-precipitator
 http://www.hitachi-
infra.com.sg/services/energy/dustcollection/principle/dustcollection.html

 Applied Electrostatic Precipitation by K. R. Parker (ed). Springer, 2012. A collection

of self-contained chapters that introduce the basic concepts of precipitation, explore
milestones in the history of the technology, and consider the various design
considerations.
 Electrical Operation of Electrostatic Precipitators by K. R. Parker. IET, 2003. A short
(44-page) but very comprehensive introduction to the technology of precipitators.
 Electrostatic Precipitator Handbook by David A. Lloyd. Springer, 1988. A more
detailed practical manual designed mainly for engineers.
 Electrostatic Precipitation: 11th International Conference on Electrostatic
Precipitation, 2008 by Keping Yan (editor). Springer, 2009. A collection of recent
conference papers exploring recent developments and future developments in
precipitation technology.