ELECTROSTATIC

PRECIPITATOR

S.GOWRISHANKAR
115009060
PRINCIPLE

An electrostatic precipitator (ESP) is a device that

removes dust particles from a flowing gas (such as
air) using force of an induced electrostatic
attraction (i.e. like charges repel; unlike charges
attract)
Working

It has two sets of electrodes, insulated from each other

that maintain an electrostatic field between them at high
voltage.
The flue gases are made to pass between these two sets
of electrodes. The electric field ionizes the dust particle;
that pass through it attracting them to the electrode of
opposite charge.
The other electrode is maintained at a negative potential of
30,000 to 60,000 volts.
The dust particles are removed from the collecting
electrode by rapping the electrode periodically.
 Theprincipal characteristics of an ash collector is the
degree of collection.
= Degree of collection
= (G1-G2 )/G1
G1 =Quantity of ash entering an ash collector per
unit time (kg/s).
G2= Quantity of uncollected ash passing through
the collector per unit time (kg/s)
 Components used in electrostatic precipitator

Electrodes
440V 50HZ 3 AC supply
High voltage transformer
Rectifier
insulators
Hooper
 Basic diagram of an electrostatic precipitator
20 80 KV DC

AC supply

Clean gas

Discharge
electrode

Control cabinet High voltage Rectifier Dust gas Collector

transformer electrode

Hooper
Control cabinet
Control cabinet is used to interconnect the 3 ac supply and
transformer through cables.
Transformer
Transformer is used to step up or step down voltage as
per design of Electrostatic precipitator.
Rectifier
Rectifier is used to convert ac supply into dc supply.
Hooper
Hooper is used to store dust particles and ash content
coming out from the Electrostatic precipitator.
 Electrodes : -
Collector
Based on DC current flow terminals electrodes electrodes
can be divided as below:-

Discharge electrode :- Discharge

electrode
Electrodes wire which carries negatively
charged high voltage (between 20 to 80KV)
act as discharge or emitting electrodes.

Collector electrode :-

Electrode plate / wire which carries

positively charged high voltage act as
Collecting electrodes.
 Main process of ESP

Processes of electrostatic precipitator are in three main stages:

particle charging
transport
collection
Mechanism of ESP
WORKING OF ELECTROSTATIC
PRECIPITATOR
Stage - 1

Electric field is emerged due to dc terminal arrangement. The

applied (-) voltage in discharge electrode is increased until it
produces a corona discharge, which can be seen as a
luminous blue glow around discharge Electrode.

Due to the formation of corona discharge, free electrons are

emitted with high velocity from discharge electrode.
 This fast moving free electrons strikes gas molecule
thus emission of free electron from gas molecules takes
place.
The positive ion molecule move towards discharge
electrode by electrostatic attraction
As a result with gas molecule more free electrons are
emitted near the discharge electrode.
 Stage - 2
As electrons leave strong electrical field area
around discharge electrode, they start slowing
down. This free electron again strikes gas
molecule but this time they are captured by gas
molecule and become negatively charged ion.

As gas molecule are negatively ionized they move

towards (+) electrode (i.e. collector electrode).

This negative gas ion fills space of Dust particle

and becoming negatively charged particle.

This particle are captured by collector electrode

using electrostatic attraction.
The main process variables to consider are:
Gas flow rate

Particle size and size distribution

Particle resistivity

Gas temperature