The impact of fly ash resistivity and carbon content on electrostatic precipitator performance

Richelieu Barranco, Mei Gong, Alan Thompson, Michael Cloke, Svenja Hanson, Will Gibb, Edward Lester

Research output: Journal PublicationArticlepeer-review

48 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Despite the wide use of electrostatic precipitators for particulate control in pulverised coal combustion, there are still some aspects surrounding the performance of these devices which are not fully understood, particularly with respect to high carbon ash. The introduction of low NOx burners to meet more stringent emissions regulations has also resulted in an increase in the carbon present in fly ash. An investigation was carried to assess how the operating conditions of a pilot-scale single-stage electrostatic precipitator test facility (ESPTF) affected the collection efficiency of two high carbon fly ashes. Whilst our findings demonstrated the effectiveness of the ESPTF in collecting both fly ash and carbon particles, the performance of the high-resistivity fly ash was significantly better than expected, particularly at higher temperatures. It was concluded that ESP performance of any particular fly ash and the separation of the carbon fraction may not necessarily be predicted by its resistivity alone.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2521-2527
Number of pages7
JournalFuel
Volume86
Issue number16
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2007

Keywords

  • Electrostatic precipitation
  • Fly ash
  • Resistivity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Chemical Engineering
  • Fuel Technology
  • Energy Engineering and Power Technology
  • Organic Chemistry

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