Ash Removing Techniques

CHAPTER # 4
4.1 INTRODUCTION
Airborne particles can be removed from a polluted airstream by a variety of physical
processes. Common types of equipment for collecting fine particulates include cyclones,
scrubbers, electrostatic precipitators, and bag filters. Once collected, particulates adhere to
each other, forming agglomerates that can readily be removed from the equipment and
disposed of, usually in a landfill.
Because each air-pollution control project is unique, it is usually not possible to decide in
advance what the best type of particle collection device (or combination of devices) will be;
control systems must be designed on a case-by-case basis. Important particulate
characteristics that influence the selection of collection devices include corrosivity, reactivity,
shape, density, and especially size and size distribution. Other design factors include
airstreams characteristics (e.g., pressure, temperature, and viscosity), flow rate, removal
efficiency requirements, and allowable resistance to airflow. In general, cyclone collectors
are often used to control industrial dust emissions and as pre-cleaners for other kinds of
collection devices. Wet scrubbers are usually applied in the control of flammable or explosive
dusts or mists from such sources as industrial and chemical processing facilities and
hazardous-waste incinerators; they can handle hot airstreams and sticky particles.
The exhaust of the Fluidized Bed Combustion (FBC) plant consists of varying sized ash
particles, un-burnt heavy particles and SO2. It is very necessary to clean the exhaust of FBC
plant before releasing into the atmosphere.

4.2 DUST CLEANING EQUIPMENTS

Following are the different techniques to clean the exhaust gases.
1. Electrostatic Precipitator
2. Wet Scrubber
3. Cyclone
4. Dry Mechanical Duster
5. Bag Filters

4.2.1 ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR

Electrostatic precipitation is a commonly used method for removing fine particulates from
airstreams. In an electrostatic precipitator, particles suspended in the airstream are given an

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electric charge as they enter the unit and are then removed by the influence of an electric
field. The precipitation unit comprises baffles for distributing airflow, discharge and
collection electrodes, a dust clean-out system, and collection hoppers. A high DC voltage (as
much as 100,000 volts) is applied to the discharge electrodes to charge the particles, which
then are attracted to oppositely charged collection electrodes, on which they become trapped.
Particles that stick to the collection plates are removed periodically when the plates are
shaken, or "rapped." Rapping is a mechanical technique for separating the trapped particles
from the plates, which typically become covered with a 6-mm (0.2-inch) layer of dust.
Rappers are either of the impulse (single-blow) or vibrating type. The dislodged particles are
collected in a hopper at the bottom of the unit and removed for disposal. An electrostatic
precipitator can remove particulates as small as 1 μm (0.00004 inch) with an efficiency
exceeding 99 percent. The effectiveness of electrostatic precipitators in removing fly ash
from the combustion gases of fossil-fuel furnaces accounts for their high frequency of use at
power stations. In a typical unit the collection electrodes comprise a group of large
rectangular metal plates suspended vertically and parallel to each other inside a box like
structure. There are often hundreds of plates having a combined surface area of tens of
thousands of square meters. Rows of discharge electrode wires hang between the collection
plates. The wires are given a negative electric charge, whereas the plates are grounded and
thus become positively charged. Electrostatic precipitators are shown in the Figure 4.1 below.

Fig 4.1-a Electrostatic Precipitator

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4.1-b

4.1-c
4.2.2 WET SCRUBBER
Devices called wet scrubbers trap suspended particles by direct contact with a spray of water
or other liquid. In effect, a scrubber washes the particulates out of the dirty airstream as they
collide with and are entrained by the countless tiny droplets in the spray.
Several configurations of wet scrubbers are in use. In a spray-tower scrubber, an upward-
flowing airstream is washed by water sprayed downward from a series of nozzles. The water
is recirculated after it is sufficiently cleaned to prevent clogging of the nozzles.
Spray-tower scrubbers can remove 90 percent of particulates larger than about 8 μm (0.0003
inch).
In orifice scrubbers and wet-impingement scrubbers, the air and droplet mixture collides with
a solid surface. Collision with a surface atomizes the droplets, reducing droplet size and
thereby increasing total surface contact area. These devices have the advantage of lower
water-recirculation rates, and they offer removal efficiencies of about 90 percent for particles
larger than 2 μm (0.00008 inch).
Venturi scrubbers are the most efficient of the wet collectors, achieving efficiencies of more
than 98 percent for particles larger than 0.4 μm (0.00002 inch) in diameter. Scrubber
efficiency depends on the relative velocity between the droplets and the particulates. The

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design of the Venturi Scrubber consists of a "wet approach" venturi followed by a liquid
entrainment separator. Dust laden gases enter the venturi and instantly make contact with the
tangentially introduced scrubbing liquid swirling down the venturi's converging walls.
At the venturi throat, the gas and liquid streams collide and the liquid breaks down into
droplets which trap dust particles. This gas/liquid mixture passes through a flooded elbow,
and enters the entrainment separator through a tangential inlet. Centrifugal action removes
the heavy wetted particles from the gas stream. As an alternate, when very large diameter
separators are required, the liquid is separated by passing the stream through a chevron-type
mist eliminator baffle.
The dust/liquid mixture is discharged from the separator bottom drain and the cleaned gas
leaves through the top of the separator. The diagram is shown in the Figure 4.2 below.

Fig 4.2 Wet Scrubber

Design Principles
New advances in throat design has led to significant improvements in removal efficiencies,
the ability to respond to variability in flow, and the ability to remove very small particles,
aerosols and some gases.
The principle of the design is illustrated in Figure 4.3 below where the gas stream flows
through the duct, passes by the water spray heads, and is forced by two outside cylinders into
the middle region. By adding a third cylindrical displacer on a lifting rod, a double split is

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formed creating two venturi throats. The vertical movement of the displacer can vary the split
to the optimum width for maximum efficiency even during variations in flow.

Figure 4.3 Design Principle of Wet Scrubber

The scrubbing solution is sprayed at low pressure but, due to the high sheer effect of the gas
stream in the throat - velocities between 40 and 140 m/sec. - the liquid aerosols are further
atomized into very fine drops or mists. This is the key to the performance of this design. The
high gas acceleration in the throat and the high relative velocity between particles and
scrubbing aerosols provides for excellent opportunity for contact and, therefore, separation
efficiencies with this venturi scrubber.

4.2.3 WHIRL WIND DUSTER–CYCLONES

Whirl wind duster is designed on the basis of using the centrifugalization resulted from the
returning dust-laden flowing gas to separate the dust from the gas. It is featured by the
following points:
1) Simpler structure, no moving parts in the excluder body, no need to the auxiliary
facilities, less occupied area and investment needed.
2) Simple to be operated and maintained, intermediate pressure loss, adequate power
consuming and low operation and maintenance cost.
3) Larger range of operation parameter, stable performance. Less limitation environment
and varying working status.
The schematic diagram of a cyclone is shown in the Figure 4.4 below. when the dust laden
flowing gas enters the excluder via inlet with a higher velocity of 12-24 m/sec, the gas flow
changes itself from linear to circular motion down in the helical path along the cylinder wall

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towards the conical part. This gas flow is usually called outer-winded flow. The
centrifugalization force generated by the turning process of the dust-laden gas drives dust
forwards the wall.

Fig 4.4 Cyclone

The dust attaches the wall it slips down and gets into the dust excluding pipe. At the moment
of reaching the conical part the turning-down outer-winded flow is concentrated to the center
line as the radius decreases and tangential velocity of flow increases. When flowing gas
reaches the bottom of the conical part, it will turn up to the middle part of the whirl wind dust
excluder in the same turning direction. This helical flow is called inner-winded flow. At last
the cleaned gas is excluded out of the pipe. However, it still contains some of the dust.
The difference in structure of whirl wind duster affects the efficiency of dusting and the
resistance. Resistance of whirl wind dust excluder is in the range of 10-100 mm H2O, and is
usually 100 mm H2O. In addition, dust exclusive efficiency is also affected by the radius of
dust in flow. There exist many formulas to calculate the efficiency. The efficiency is
generally in range of 0.8-0.97, usually is about 0.8-0.9.
There are many structural and performance parameters influencing the efficiency of the dust
excluder. They are:
• Radius of the cylinder
In common sense the smaller the radius of cylinder, the smaller the turning radius of
the flow, hence the greater the centrifugalization of the dust subjected and the greater
the dust-excluder efficiency. Bust if the radius of the cylinder is too small, the
cylinder wall will be too close to the excluding pipe, this will lead some dust with
larger radius to be refluxed to the center and carried out by the flowing gas so making

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the dust exclusive efficiency low. On the other hand it is easy to block if the radius of
the cylinder is too small. The adequate radius of cylinder is over 200 mm. A graph is
shown in Figure 4.5, which shows the relation of capacity of cyclone in m3/hr and the
diameter of the cyclone in inches.

Fig 4.5 Cyclone Diameter (in.) v/s Capacity (m3/hr)

• Height of the duster

Usually a dust excluder with higher efficiency has a greater ratio of length to radius.
In this case dust stays in the cylinder within a longer period which is beneficial to the
separation. It is also helpful for the dust contained in the center of the flow to get
more chance to be separated from flow before reaching the excluding the pipe. It
means being able to decrease the recarrying, thus raise the dust exclusive efficiency.
In addition, the adequate height of the cylinder is of benefit to decrease the resistance
of dust excluder. But the over length cylinder will lead to occupy the large space and
increase the steel consumption. Therefore the trade-off of the natural length L. of the
whirl wind duster is presented which equals to the distance between the bottom of the
excluding pipe and the top of the turning flow in the cylinder, i.e. ,
L = 2.8do (Do2/ab) 1/3
Where
do = diameter of the excluding pipe (m)
a = height of the tube (m)

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b = width of the inlet tube (m)

L = natural length of whirl wind dust excluder (m)
Natural height of the whirl wind dust excluder must be ensured a certain value,
usually the length of the cylinder is designed as 1.4-2.00 Do. The height of the conical
part is directly related to the half-conical angle α and the diameter of the dust excluder
mouth at the conic part, usually the conicing is designed as 130 to 140.
• Length of excluding pipe
Cylinder and conical excluding pipe with bottom commonly adopted. The one is
designed to decrease resistance.
Decreasing the diameter of excluding pipe in certain range is beneficial to increase the
dust-exclusive efficiency but leading to increase the resistance lose. Inversely, the
efficiency will be decreased and the resistance losing as well. Generally if the
diameter of the excluding pipe is smaller than 0.4 of the outer diameter of the
cylinder, raising efficiency become difficult but the raising of the resistance
coefficient goes fast. Therefore, the diameter of the excluding pipe should be
determined on the consideration of both dust-exclusive efficiency and resistance.
Usually it is taken as
De = (0.3 to 0.6) D0
Since winded flow moves in the region of excluding pipe and the outer –cylinder, thus
the insert depth h of the excluding pipe affects directly the performance of the whirled
dust excluder. In fact, within certain depth the dust exclusive efficiency, but increase
resistance also; inversely, the exclusive efficiency decrease and the resistance as well.
The appreciate depth is considered as h0> 0.8a
• Flow Velocity at inlet
Within certain region, the higher the flow velocity at inlet is, the higher exclusive
efficiency will be. But too high velocity makes possible of the serious friction
between dust and cylinder wall, this will break the dust and make it smaller. Besides,
high velocity can separate those condensed dust balls. Moreover, high velocity
increases the turbulence of the flow and increases the reflection of the dust from the
wall. All this are disadvantageous to the raising of exclusive efficiency.
• The influence of density ρ, viscosity μ, pressure p, and temperature T on the
performance of the whirled wind dust excluder.

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In fact greater density of gas makes dust exclusive efficiency lower, but the density of
gas can be neglected in comparison with the density of solid particles especially under
the action of normal pressure. Therefore, the influence of the gas density on the
exclusive efficiency can be neglected in comparing with that of solid particles.
In general, higher temperature leads to the decrease the resistance losing of whirled
duster. Increase of gas density leads to increase the pressure losing, and the efficiency
of dust excluder decreases as the gas viscosity increases. Since the viscosity gas
increases as the temperature raises. The dust exclusive efficiency even decreases as
the parameters like inlet gas velocity keeps constant.
• Influence of dust density in gas on the performance of dust excluder
Within a certain region the dust exclusive efficiency increases as the dust density in
the gas increases. The reason of that is when the dust increases, the condensation of
the dust increases resulting to the smaller dust. On the other hand, the collision of
large dust with smaller dust leads to increase the probity of capturing the smaller dust.
However, the dust exclusive efficiency decreases when dust density exceeds a certain
limit. Dust density may affect the resistance losing whirl wind dust excluder. In
general, the resistance loosing will be decreased when increasing the dust-density in
gas.
• Effect of physical properties of solid particles
Generally, the particles with greater diameter leads to generate greater
centrifugalization, thus the greater is the percentage of the bigger particles in the
whole dust, greater will be the total dust-exclusive efficiency.
There is also big influence of dust-density on the exclusive efficiency. As the
influence of the dust diameter is greater dust-density results to increase dust-exclusive
efficiency.
Besides, the inner-wall smoothness of the dust excluder and the sealing condition are
also effective to the exclusive efficiency. Hence it is necessary to make the inner-wall
smoothly and sealing strictly.

4.2.3.1 DESIGN PARAMETERS OF THE CYCLONES

The Number of Effective Turns (Ne)
The first step of Classical Cyclone Design process is to calculate the number of
effective turns. The number of effective turns in a cyclone is the number of

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revolutions the gas spins while passing through the cyclone outer vortex. A higher
number of turns of the air stream result in a higher collection efficiency. The
parameters Hc, Lc, Zc are shown in Figure 4.6.

Fig 4.6 Various Dimensions of a Cyclone

Cut-Point (d40)
The second step is the calculation of the cut-point diameter. The cut-point of a
cyclone is the aerodynamic equivalent diameter (AED) of the particle collected with
40% efficiency. As the cut-point diameter increases, the collection efficiency
decreases.

Where
μ: Gas viscosity (kg/m-s) W: Width of cyclone inlet duct (m)
ρg: Gas density (kg/m3) Ne: Number of effective turns
ρp: Particle density (kg/m3)
Equivalent spherical diameter (ESD), or in other words, it is a Stokes diameter. The
following equation can be used to convert ESD to AED for the spherical particles:

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equivalent spherical diameter (ESD), or in other words, it is a Stokes diameter. The

following equation can be used to convert ESD to AED for the spherical particles

• Pressure Drop Through Cyclone

The following pressure loss components are involved in the analysis of cyclone
pressure loss for this research:
1. Cyclone entry loss (ΔPe).
2. Kinetic energy loss (ΔPk).
3. Frictional loss in the outer vortex (ΔPf).
4. Kinetic energy loss caused by the rotational field (ΔPr).
5. Pressure loss in the inner vortex and exit tube (ΔPo).
The frictional pressure drop through the cyclone, ▲Pc, is given by Alexander 1949,
▲Pc = NhVi2/2g
Nh is the number of inlet velocity heads given by Nh = CLK/m2, here Vi is the gads
velocity at the cyclone inlet and here K and C are the height and width of the inlet
respectively. Constant C is in range of 7.4-18.4.

4.2.4 DRY MECHANICAL DUSTER

Dry mechanical duster is a kind of duster which is designed on various precipitation
mechanism including
• Gravity precipitation
These kinds of dust excluders are easy to be manufactured, installed, and the
operation is quite simple and reliable. However, it is usually used as pre-processing
duster since these are having low efficiency.
Contained in a horizontal gas flow. In this case dust is subjected to three forces, i.e.
gravity P1, floatage P2 and medium resistance P3 occurring in the precipitation.
Assuming that the dust is spherical, the three forces then becomes
P1= πd3 ρp g/6
P2= π d3 ρg/6
P3 = ξ F ρ Vc2/2 = ξ π d2 ρv2/8

Where

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P1 = gravity (N) ρ = density of air (kg/)

P2 = Floatage (N Vc = precipitative velocity of dust
P3 = medium resistance (m/s)
d = diameter of dust (m) G = gravitational acceleration
ρp= density of dust (kg/m3) (ξ) = resistance coefficient of the
medium

In fact, the gravity is directionally accordance with precipitation and opposed to

floatage, thus the difference between gravity and floatage is the precipitation. In
precipitative motion the increasing medium resistance will balance the precipitational
force. Normally,
P3 = P1 – P2
Precipitational force depends on the diameter of the dust, the property of the material,
as well as the medium and its state. The dust falls down at uniform velocity when
precipitational force equals to floatage and the corresponding falling velocity is
defined as the falling velocity Vc. Dust falls down at falling velocity and separates off
from the gas flow at the bottom of the chamber at last.
From above equations, we obtain the falling velocity
Vc = {4gd (ρp – ρ)/3ξρ} 1/2
• Inertial Duster
If the gas flow moves around the blockages with velocity of V and the turning radius
r, thus there exists an inertial acceleration of V2/r. This inertial force acting on the dust
is in fact as strong as hundreds and thousands times of the gravitational force. This
indicates that an inertial dust excluder is more efficient than a gravity dust excluder.
The inertial accelerator employed in an inertial duster is actually a centrifugal
accelerator. Therefore, it is necessary to describe the inertial duster by means of three
variables i.e characteristic velocity, turning radius “r” and the turning angle “θ”. The
three variables together with the feature and dimensions of the inertial duster,
performance of the inertial duster can be determined, whereas the separation of the
dust resulted from the collision of the dust with the blockage is neglected.
There exist many kinds of inertial dust excluders and five essential types of them are
shown in figure, they are
1. Vertical hat type.

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2. Impact type
3. Reversal type
4. Multichain impact type
5. Jalousie type
6. Condenser type
Figure 4.7 shows the different types of the inertial precipitators.

Vertical hat type Impact type Multi-chain impact type

Reversal type Jalousie type Condenser

Fig 4.6 Types of Inertial Precipitators

The critical separation radius of dust in this kind of dust- excluders is about 20-30μm
and the pressure drop is usually about 10 to 100 mm H2O.

4.2.4 BAG-TYPE DUST EXCLUDER

One of the most efficient devices for removing suspended particulates is an assembly of
fabric filter bags, commonly called a bag house. A typical bag house comprises an array of

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long, narrow bags--each about 24 cm (10 inches) in diameter--that are suspended upside
down in a large enclosure. Dust-laden air is blown upward through the bottom of the
enclosure by fans. Particulates are trapped inside the filter bags, while the clean air passes
through the fabric and exits at the top of the bag house.
As shown in Figure 4.7, fabric-filter dust collector can remove very nearly 100 percent of
particles as small as 1 m (0.00004 inch) and a significant fraction of particles as small as
0.01 μm (0.0000004 inch). Fabric filters, however, offer relatively high resistance to airflow,
and they are expensive to operate and maintain. Additionally, to prolong the useful life of the
filter fabric, the air to be cleaned must be cooled (usually below 300 oC [470 oF]) before it is
passed through the unit; cooling coils needed for this purpose add to the expense. (Certain
filter fabrics--e.g., those made of ceramic or mineral materials--can operate at higher
temperatures.)
Several compartments of filter bags are often used at a single bag house installation. This
arrangement allows individual compartments to be cleaned while others remain in service.
The bags are cleaned by mechanical shakers or by reversing the flow of air, and the loosened
particulates are collected and removed for disposal.

Figure 4.8 The Bag Filter

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