An investigation of precipitator wide plate spacing
- Combustion Engineering, Inc., Birmingham, AL (USA). Environmental Systems Div.
- Southern Research Inst., Birmingham, AL (USA)
This report presents the results of a study to assess the feasibility of using precipitators with wide plate spacing on coal-fired utility boilers in the United States. The study consisted of parametric evaluations of various plate spacings in a pilot ESP; performance tests of a utility ESP with wide plate spacing; tests of the interelectrode electric potential distribution; and commercial evaluations of the feasibility of wide plate spacing. The economic study indicated that the capital cost of a new precipitator can be reduced by 12{percent} to 16{percent} when the plate spacing is increased from 9 inches to 18 inches. Furthermore, the reduction in the number of ESP components should reduce the maintenance cost and improve the reliability. In the major effort of the study, the performance of the pilot ESP at the EPRI Arapahoe Test Facility was tested with plate spacings of 9, 12, 18, and 22 inches, and with different values of fly ash electrical resistivity and average gas velocity. The ESP was operated at spark limit for all tests, and the operating voltages increased proportionally as the plate spacing was increased form 9 to 18 inches. When the variations in ESP performance due to variations in fly ash resistivity were removed from consideration, analysis of the performance data indicated that there was little or no loss in collection efficiency as the plate spacing was increased from 9 to 18 inches, even though the collecting plate area and SCA were halved. The ESP performance degraded at 22-inch plate spacing. In addition to the pilot-scale study at Arapahoe, the performance of a German utility fly ash precipitator with both conventional and wide plate spacings in different fields was tested with selected fields turned off.
- Research Organization:
- Electric Power Research Inst., Palo Alto, CA (USA); Combustion Engineering, Inc., Birmingham, AL (USA). Environmental Systems Div.; Southern Research Inst., Birmingham, AL (USA)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- EPRI
- OSTI ID:
- 7258996
- Report Number(s):
- EPRI-GS-6711
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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200202* - Fossil-Fueled Power Plants- Waste Management- Noxious Gas & Particulate Emissions