A Numerical Analysis on the Submicron- And Micron-Sized Particle Sedimentation in a Wire-to-Plate Electrostatic Precipitator

Electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) are frequently utilized in collecting fine organic and inorganic materials from continuous liquid with few moving parts and high efficiency using electrically charging the particles. In this study, cross-sectional 2D geometry of a wire-to-plate electrostatic precipitator the parametric data of which originally published elsewhere was numerically modeled and validated to investigate submicron-micron particle charging in terms of diffusion and field charging mechanisms and precipitation behavior of particles with detailed electric field properties. Electric field, gas flow, and particle trajectory equations are coupled and solved in a multiphysics solver. Particle tracking is realized with the Lagrangian approach. Results indicate variations in electric field strength and space charge density between corona electrodes, with space charge present in the entire precipitation channel. Between two different charging mechanisms, diffusion charging prevails for charge accumulated on submicron particles, whereas field charging becomes dominant for particles larger than 1μm diameter. However, for the ESP configuration considered in this study, particles reach a charge saturation in less than 0.7 seconds, regardless of their size. Although calculated precipitation efficiencies for micron-sized particles can reach to 100%, efficiencies for submicron particle range drop with increasing particle size, as diffusion charging rapidly loses its effectiveness, in 50-250nm range.