New ESP additive controls particulates
This article reports that a conditioning agent enhanced precipitator performance after plant switched to low-sulfur coal. Firing low-sulfur coal at a power plant designed for medium- or high-sulfur coal will impact the downstream particulate control device. Since the performance of an electro-static precipitator (ESP) is a strong function of the sulfur content in the coal, switching to a low-sulfur coal will severely impact collection efficiency. Particle resistivity is the dominant parameter affecting the performance of an ESP. When the resistivity is too high, the ESP must be increased in size by a factor of two to three, resulting in proportionally increased capital and operating costs. Fly ash from low-sulfur coal is known to have a typical resistivity one or two orders of magnitude above that for ideal collection efficiency in a well-designed ESP. Therefore, when a utility burning a medium- or high-sulfur coal switches to a low-sulfur coal, the increase in particle resistivity resulting from the reduced SO{sub 3} concentration will lead to severe problems in the ESP. There have been many instances where utilities have switched from a high- to a low-sulfur coal, and the problems caused by the increased resistivity have had such a devastating effect on the performance of the ESP that emissions have increased by a factor of 10.
- OSTI ID:
- 504806
- Journal Information:
- Power Engineering (Barrington), Vol. 101, Issue 6; Other Information: PBD: Jun 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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