Performance of Large-Diameter Wires as Discharge Electrodes in Electrostatic Precipitators

Abstract

Conventional practice in the design of corona discharge electrodes for electrostatic precipitators tends toward those having a relatively low corona Inception voltage. But the theory indicates that maximal electric field strength is beneficial to both charging and collection of particles. Only those particles smaller than about 0.2 μm diameter are more readily charged by increasing the ion current density instead of the electric field strength. Tests carried out on high-resistivity fly ash In a large pilot system (30,000 acfm) comparing performance of 3/8-in. diameter wires with more nearly conventional 1/8-in. wires resulted in substantially superior performance for the larger electrodes