Development of electrostatic particulate collection system for agricultural biomass based energy applications

Abstract

The use of agricultural based biomass through combustion is playing an important role in the production of heat and electricity worldwide. The emission of particulate matter pollution from biomass combustion has drawn significant attention because of its harmful effects on human health and environment. Consequently, it becomes important to have a simple and cost effective solution to avoid the problems of air pollution due to the combustion of biomass. Using an Electrostatic Precipitator (ESP) is an effective method for the removal of particulate matter from industrial processes and boilers. This research proposes the development of a cost effective, simple and compact ESP, through practical installation and efficiency analysis. Experimental evaluation of the proposed ESP design is carried out for the removal of particulate matter from a biomass combustor. The results shown in this paper are promising and exhibit that a simple solution can achieve above 90% efficiency. The average particulate collection efficiency of our proposed ESP reached its peak stable value of 99.1% when tested with applied voltage of 25kV at an air velocity of 0.5 m/s. Moreover, it was observed and shown in this paper that when the voltage was increased beyond 25kV, the efficiency of the design lost its stability due to back corona effect. The filtration system proposed in this paper shows the ability of an efficient tool for controlling the flow of particulate pollutant matter from biomass combustion under particular conditions.