Experimental study on characteristics and performance optimization of honeycomb charged dual-zone electrostatic precipitator

As a major air pollutant, PM2.5 poses a serious threat to public health and the ecological environment, making the development of efficient and low-energy-consumption control technologies crucial. Two-stage electrostatic precipitators (ESP) have shown potential in PM2.5 removal due to the separation of charging and collection processes, but traditional designs suffer from problems such as high operating voltage, large power consumption, uneven electric field distribution, and high pressure drop. In this study, a honeycomb-charged two-stage ESP was designed. The effects of honeycomb diameter, discharge needle insertion depth, charging zone voltage, collection zone voltage, and air speed on dust removal efficiency were investigated through experiments. A quality factor(QF) was introduced to evaluate the comprehensive performance. The results show that the optimal dust removal effect is achieved when the honeycomb diameter is 30 mm and the discharge needle insertion depth is 40 mm. Under the operating conditions of charging zone voltage of -10 kV, collection zone voltage of 8 kV, and air speed of 0.5 m/s, the removal efficiency of NaCl aerosol with particle size of less than 1 ?m reaches 99.63%, the pressure drop is less than 25 Pa, the power consumption is less than 50 W, and the quality factor is 0.1179. Compared with the traditional wire-plate two-stage ESP, this design achieves a better balance between efficiency, energy consumption, and pressure drop, which can meet the PM?.? control requirements of industrial and indoor environments. It provides theoretical basis and technical support for the structural optimization and large-scale application of electrostatic precipitators.