ABC of

E.S.P.
 ROOF

SUPPORT INSULATOR

DERM

RECTIFIER TRANSFORMER

COLLECTING ELECTRODE

CERM

DISCHARGE ELECTRODE
GAS DIST.PLATE
 PRECIPITATION PROCESS

• HIGH VOLTAGE ELECTROSTATIC FIELD OF DISCHARGE ELECTRODE CREATES CORONA

• CORONA LEADS TO IONISATION OF GAS AND IMPARTES A NEGATIVE CHARGE TO

THE ASH PARTICLES.

• THE NEGATIVELY CHARGED ASH PARTICLE GET ATTRACTED TOWARDS POSITIVELY

CHARGED COLECTING PLATE AND GET COLLECTED.

FACTORS AFFECTING ESP PERFORMANCE

1. Gas distribution into the treatment zone

2. Discharge electrode

3. Collecting electrode

4. Rapping mechanism

5. Gas volume

6. Fly ash property – ‘Resistivity’

7. Hopper levels

8. Electrical conditions
1) GAS DISTRIBUTION INTO THE TREATMENT ZONE

Optimum use of collecting area can be ensured if the flow is uniformly

distributed across the ESP.

Otherwise non uniform flow will result in higher velocity in some

sections.This results in lower collection efficiency.

The actual measured velocity should lie with in 25 % of the average

velocity.

Resultant velocity
Gas velocity

Electrostatic attraction
2) DISCHARGE ELECTRODES

Discharge electrodes produces corona discharge.

The inlet fields can have aggressive electrodes i.e. electrodes should
have more no of spikes
Slacking and breaking of discharge electrodes leads to breakdown of
whole field.

To overcome above problem :

• Avoid spark erosion

• Enable peak finder in the controller

• Divide total cross-section into electrical sub zones to provides a partial

solution to the breakdown of total field

• Take care during erection to avoid excessive mechanical stress on the

electrodes wires and dynamic alignment has to perfect

3) COLLECTING ELECTRODES

REQUIREMENTS TO BE SATISFIED BY COLLECTING PLATES :

• Rigid and yet good oscillation behavior so that rapping produces high acc.
• Surfaces to be as smooth as possible to permit high flashover limits.
• Freedom of thermal movement for CE to cope with sudden temp change.

BOWING OF COLLECTING ELECTRODES ARE BIGGEST THREAT

WARPED PLATES ARE THREAT TO ELECTRICAL EFFICIENCY

Plate distortion reduces the clearance from wire to plate.

Sparkover voltage ( hence power to the entire field ) is limited by a
single wire which is closest to the plate.
WARPED PLATES ARE A THREAT TO ESP’s AVAILABILITY.

Sparks will be concentrated at those points of closest separation

rather than random distribution. This often leads to broken wires
which may ground it as well.

WARPED PLATES DONOT RAP PROPERLY

A warped plate may dampen rapper forces and fail to uniformly

release dust from the surface.
4) RAPPING MECHANISM – FREQUENCY & DURATION

• Very low frequency of rapping leads to more accumulation of dust on

plates leading to lower efficiency.

• Very high frequency of rapping re-entrainment of dust into the flue gas

• Lowering the input voltage/power to the electrodes at time of rapping

gives better performance

Ash
collection in Rapping Time of
Field No % frequency rapping
1 79 20 3
2 18 10 6
3 2.4 4 15
4 0.44 2 30
5) GAS VOLUME

If the gas volume is high the velocity of ash will increases resulting in
lower treatment time. This lead to lower collection effeciency.

High gas volume occurs because of :

• High mass flow due to excess ingress of air in air heater / system
• High gas temperature because of soot deposition on the heat
transfer areas.
 Resistivity

Ohm’s Law:

E=RxI
I: Ion Current Density
E: Electric Field
R: Dust Layer Resistivity

Collecting Plate
 Resistivity

✦ Flue Gas Temperature

✦ Flue Gas Composition

✹ Moisture Content

✹ SO3 Content

✦ Fly Ash Mineral Composition

✹ Sulfur

✹ Sodium Oxide
 Dust Resistivity

Surface Conduction <290° F

Ion Conduction is over surface of dust layer

1/4” Dust Layer

Collecting Plate (typical)
Volume Conduction >440° F

Ion Conduction is through dust layer

1/4” Dust Layer

Collecting Plate ( typical )
 Resistivity

✦ Flue Gas Temperature

✦ Flue Gas Composition

✹ Moisture Content

✹ SO3 Content

✦ Fly Ash Mineral Composition

✹ Sulfur

✹ Sodium Oxide
 Moisture Conditioning of Cement Kiln Dust

1012

6.6% H20 Dry Air

by Volume

1011
Resistivity, 13.5% H20

ohm-cm
20% H20
1010

109
200 300 400 500 600 700

Temperature, F°
IMPACT OF ASH RESISTIVITY - BACK CORONA

• In a high resistive dust a potential gradient is created within the dust

layers which causes the occurrence of local sparks in the dust layer.

• This spurious discharges are called “back corona” which opposes the
positive corona.

• These local sparks in the accumulated dust layer causes the particle to
be re-entrained into the gas flow.
 BACK CORONA

1. Crater Forms
2. Positive Corona Flows
From Bottom Of Crater

3. Electric Wind Brings Dust

Laden Gas In
4. Crater Starts To Fill With Dust

To overcome back corona, field controller is operated in CHARGE RATIO

MODE / BACK CORONA MODE / PULSE ENERGIZATION MODE
Ash Resistivity Vs Temperature Vs Sulphur
 Coping with High Resistivity

1. Modify gas temperature

2. Introduce humidity

3. Condition with sulfur trioxide, ammonia or

sodium compounds

4. Pulse energization or intermittent energization

5. Increase ESP size

 Moisture Conditioning of Cement Kiln Dust

1012

6.6% H20 Dry Air

by Volume

1011
Resistivity, 13.5% H20

ohm-cm
20% H20
1010

109
200 300 400 500 600 700

Temperature, F°
 Coping with High Resistivity

1. Modify gas temperature

2. Introduce humidity

3. Condition with sulfur trioxide, ammonia or

sodium compounds

4. Pulse energization or intermittent energization

5. Increase ESP size

SO3 Conditioning
SO3 Injection Nozzles
AMMONIA INJECTION – A CASE STUDY

S Parameters Before NH3 After NH3 NH3 and

dosing dosing Controller
Optimization
1 Flue gas temperature 0C 155 155 155

2 Flue gas flow Nm3/sec 48.61 48.61 48.61

3 Flue gas humidity 6.4 6.4 7.0

(volume %)

4 Steam generation te/hr 199 199 199

6 Ammonia flow kg/hr 0 15 15

7 SPM in the flue gas 720 160 70

mg/Nm3
 Coping with High Resistivity

1. Modify gas temperature

2. Introduce humidity

3. Condition with sulfur trioxide, ammonia or

sodium compounds

4. Pulse energization or intermittent energization

5. Increase ESP size

 Normal Full Wave Waveforms

KVPEAK KVMIN
0
1 Half KV
Cycle waveform
8.33 mSec

0
mA
1 Full
Cycle waveform
1/60th
Sec.
 Intermittent Energization

Voltage decays
but does not go
KVPEAK
to zero during KVMIN
0 off time
ON OF KV
F

(+) (–) (+)

(–)
Precipitator current
(mA) drops to zero
when SCRs are gated
off at zero crossing

0
1 Half Full Cycle m
Cycle OFF
ON
A
Energization Method -vs- Electrical Conditions

• Energization KVAVG KVPK KVMIN Current

Density
• Full Power 32.7 41.0 25.2 32.0

• Knee of Curve 30.1 34.4 27.0 7.0

• Intermittent 24.5 48.4 20.3 6.6

Energization
Abnormal Precipitator Current Voltage Curves
1100

Moderate Back
900
Grounded High Corona
Voltage Electrode
T = PPTR
Current 700
Milliamps
Severe Back
Corona Dust Deposits on
500 High Voltage Electrode

SPARK SPARK
300
SPARK Moderately High
Ash Resistivity
Misalignment

100

0
0 10 20 30 40 50

V = PPTR Voltage KV
ELECTRICAL PARAMETERS

Different components in the electrical circuit are :

• Electronic panel :- Provides regulated AC voltage

• Linear reactor :- To limit S/C current during sparking

• HF choke circuit :- To protect the Trf. From surges

• Rectifier transformer :- Convert regulated AC to HV DC

• ESP controller :- Regulate,Monitor and optimize the input Power

• Bus support insulator

 OPTIMZED SETTINGS OF THE CONTROLLER

Even if the sparking voltage fluctuates continuously, AVC must maintain

operating voltage of ESP as close to the spark-over voltage as possible to
get max dust efficiency.

Arcing must quickly be detected and current quickly be cut.

After the spark, favorable conditions must be restored in shortest time.

 Optimizing the performance

Im

Is

Step
80% Is

Slope
mA

DC KV

SPARKS PER MINUTE = 1000 / ( STEP % x SLOPE % )

Spark Regulation in Normal operation
When a spark occurs, current is reduced by a value of I setback
depending of type of spark. For a low intensity spark detected by digital
sensing, current is reduced in steps till favorable medium is restored.

For high intensity sparks current is reduced to zero. After a predefined

time of T Quench (deionisation time)current is increased through fast
ramp to a step value in time T recovery followed by a normal slope to a
value which is just below the spark over voltage.

This control action differentiates between normal flashover and follow

up flashover((Flashover which occur within a predefined period of time
after detection of a normal flashover)
FRC CONTROL

The fast ramp control quickly reestablishes the current to a limiting

value much faster than the normal rate of rise. This comes into action
when many sparks may occur with in a short period of time reduce the
current to a lower average.
 Coping with High Resistivity

1. Modify gas temperature

2. Introduce humidity

3. Condition with sulfur trioxide, ammonia or

sodium compounds

4. Pulse energization or intermittent energization

5. Increase ESP size

 Dust Resistivity Factor

1500
SCA Required
for
1000
99.95%
Efficiency
500

1010 1011 1012

Resistivity ohm-cm
 Ad
n d-
O l Or On
d - a ig
d g in in
A ri al
O
 Frequently Asked Questions on ESP

WHY IS CYCLIC RAPPING ADVISABLE ?

To reduce possible entertainment of the collected dust. This allows dust

after deposition to build up into a layer like a cake and fall during
rapping.

HOW CAN THE BEST OUT OF CONTROLLER BE EXTRACTED ?

By maximizing precipitator current, by correct setting of slope and

step ( which govern spark rate ), by enabling the FRC control , and by
enabling peak finder option. Charge Ratio can save energy.

WHY IS CLEARANCE BETWEEN CE & DE IS SO IMPORTANT ?

This clearance decides the spark-over voltage. Spark will occur even if
clearance is OK at all the places throughout the field, but at one place
the clearance is less.
WHY IS A REACTOR PROVIDED AT THE TRANSFORMER ?

It reduces the damage to the field by limiting the current when a

galvanic short occurs between CE and DE.

WHAT DOES SPARK RATE INDICATE ? DOES IT DEPEND ON SPARK OVER

VOLTAGE OR CURRENT ?

Spark Rate indicates how well an ESP is operating. A higher spark rate
means considerable wear & tear and reduced mean field strength, i.e.
eff.

Suppose slope is set at 20%.

Normally, 99% = 9.9 minute. So 20% = 2 minute.
If step = 100% (I.e. slope starts from zero ), then 2 minute is the time
taken by the rectifier to reach the rated current.

If step is set at 5%, time between spark = 5% of 2 minute = 6 sec.

In other words, sparks per minute = 1000 / ( S% x T% ) = 1000 / 20x5.
PERFORMANCE OF ESP - INDAL’S EXPERIENCE
NO
Are electrical
readings normal

YES ELECTRODE SYS. RAPPING MECH. ELECTRICAL SYS.

GAS DISTRIBUTION

OK OK OK

YES NO
Undersized ESP
Does ESP perform
END satisfactorily ? Unknown process
factor
 ELECTRODE SYSTEM NO
Straighten /
Are DE wires free Replace
of sagging sagging wires.
NO
Is alignment YES
within tolerance NO Adjust at support
Are DE top frames points.
correct, leveled Check for
warpage.
YES YES

NO
Are Collecting plates Straighten /
Straight, plumb replace / cut.
Jammed at
Bottom Guide ?

NO Cut out broken

Is field free of YES
wires / remove
broken wires foreign object

.
 RAPPING MECHANISM
Check for drive / cam failure.

NO Check if DERM pin insulator has

Are DE & CE are broken or out of place.
clean (<5 mm)
Adjust rapping frequency.
YES
Check for misaligned / fallen hammers.

Adjust Collecting Electrode rapping

NO frequency.
Is stack emission
free of puffing Check whether gas velocity is
within design limit.
YES
.
 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM

Check the Step and Slope settings.

NO
Is Controller
functioning Check the spark sensitivity setting.
properly
Check the firing-circuit of the SCRs.
YES

Clean insulators & Corona Shield.

Think of purge air.

NO
Replace broken insulator.
Are insulators free
of dust build-up
Check the heater operation.

YES
.
THANK YOU
 Proactive Maintenance
Strategy Benefits Reliability / Risk Based

Data/Condition Based
Mechanical Availability

A2
(Effectiveness)

A1
Planned

A Breakdown
B

Maintenance Cost Expenditures

(Efficiency)

Proactive Maintenance = More Effectiveness @ Less Cost

 Key Ingredients of Complex Change

Will to Vision Action + Resources + Skills DESIRED

+ + =
Change Plan CHANGE
 Incomplete Change

Will to Vision Action + Resources + Skills NO

+ + =
Change Plan START
 Incomplete Change

Will to Vision Action + Resources + Skills

+ + = CONFUSION
Change Plan
 Incomplete Change

Will to Vision Action + Resources + Skills FALSE

+ + =
Change Plan START
 Incomplete Change

Will to Vision Action + Resources + Skills = FRUSTRATION

+ +
Change Plan
 Incomplete Change

Will to Vision Action + Resources + Skills = ANXIETY

+ +
Change Plan