Electrostatic precipitation

Electrostatic precipitators have been used widely in industry, and play an important role in environmental protection. An electrostatic precipitator (ESP) can be operated with a high collection efficiency and a low pressure drop. Recently, an ESP also has been used for cleaning indoor air. In this review, principles of electrostatic precipitation, such as particle charging, migration velocity of charged particles and collection efficiency, are described. The performance of the ESP deteriorates by abnormal phenomena, including back corona for treating high resistivity dust, abnormal re-entrainment for low resistivity dust, and corona quenching for fine dusts. To cope with these phenomena, new technologies have been developed. Pulsed energization is a technique which copes with high resistivity dusts, and this results in lower power consumption. Using pulsed energization, non-thermal plasma can be generated and chemical reactions can be promoted for treating gaseous pollutants such as NO and volatile organic compounds. Wet ESP can also remove dusts and gaseous pollutants simultaneously. These new advancements will widen the field of application of electrostatic precipitation. Some novel applications of ESP, such as removal of dioxin from incinerators, are also included in this review.