High-Temperature Electrostatic Precipitation: Fundamentals, Phenomena and Feasibility

Book excerpt: Particle separation from hot gases is a challenging task, especially for nanoparticles. Therefore, it is usually avoided by quenching the hot gas to conduct particle separation at a more convenient temperature. In these cases, valuable high-caloric heat is either not utilized at all or only inefficiently because of particle deposition on the heat exchanger surfaces. Valuable potential is thus wasted, as high-temperature processes are already an essential part of many industries and become increasingly relevant for other industrial sectors (e.g., pyrolytic processes in the circular economy). To reduce operating costs and environmental impact, the efficient use of resources (especially fossil fuels) is an absolute necessity. To tackle this pending problem, the concept of high-temperature electrostatic precipitation is investigated in this doctoral thesis. In an electrostatic precipitator, particles are charged by charge carriers produced in a corona discharge near the discharge electrode. Charged particles migrate due to the electric field and subsequently precipitate onto the collection electrode. This doctoral thesis clearly demonstrates the feasibility of nanoparticle removal from hot gases at up to 1073 K (800 °C) using electrostatic precipitation while presenting novel insights into the charge carrier properties and their distribution, the influence of thermionic emission on the operation of electrostatic precipitators, and the fundamentals of particle charging at high temperatures.