1.

0 Summary:
2.0 Objective:

1. To demonstrate the electrostatic precipitator working principle

2. To study precipitate contaminants removal by using electrical or magnetical force
3.0 Introduction:

An increasing world-wide interest in ecological issues, such as global warming,

air quality and acid rain, results in an obligation to reduce pollution from industrial
processes. One of the most common industries appliances used to control air pollution
in power plant are electrostatic precipitator. They have been used over decades and
have proved to be an effective way of collecting and removing particles from exhaust
gases. The principles of electrostatic precipitation is to separate the suspended particle
from the exhaust gas by means of electric forces. First the particles are electrically
charged, and then collected on the electrodes, where they are removed using rapping
system to be finally thrown into the external bin. (Iwona Adamiec- Wojcik, 2011)

The electrostatic precipitator is designed to demonstrate principles of gas

cleaning device in air pollution control. The electronic precipitator ionizes dust particle
and the changed particles are attracted to particle plates. From the schematic description
of the process it can be seen that the effectiveness of the electrostatic precipitation are
depends on many factor and analysis of its performance requires interdisciplinary
knowledge. Periodic vibration caused by the rapping systems are responsible for proper
cleaning of the dust from the collecting electrodes. Geometrical features of the
electrodes, such as shape, length and thickness as well as the force impact caused by
the beater, have influence on tangent and normal acceleration of the vibration
propagated over the collecting plates. This process in turn has essential influence on the
quality of the particle collection on the plates. (Parker, 2007)

Of the major particulate collection devices used today, electrostatic precipitator

are the one of the most frequently used. They can handle large gas volumes with a wide
range of inlet temperatures, pressure, dust volumes, and acid gas condition. They can
collect a wide range of particle size and they can collect particle in dry and wet states.
(Beachler, 2008)
4.0 & 5.0 Data and Result + discussion:

The purpose of electrostatic precipitation is to demonstrate the electrostatic precipitator

working principle and to study precipitate contaminants removal by using electrical or
magnetical force. There are two set of experiment, kaolin powder used in the first run while for
atta flour was used in second run.

Firstly, all of the equipment used was blowed, weighted and placed into its place, this
procedure ensure the absent of foreign dust or powder on the equipment and hence provide
more accurate value during experiment session. Next, 50gram of powder; kaolin powder and
atta flour, was weighted and inserted into feeder. The power supply attached in and turned on.
Then, the powder was allowed to flow into the equipment. Lastly, the final weight was recorded
and tabulated into table 3.1 and table 3.2.

Electrostatic charging occurs when two materials with neutrally charged surfaces come
into contact. According to Lorite I. et al (2011) , in powder handling industries, the existence
of nonneutral charged powder and tribocharged powder cause electrostatic discharges and
ignition hazards. Thus, an accurate measurement of the charge is needed to avoid the hazards.
The electrostatic theory was proved when the particles sticking to a computer monitor are a
prime example of the influence of electrostatic charge. (Freeman Technology, 2015)

Table 3.1: Experimental data using kaolin powder.

Experiment Amount (grams)

Kaolin (Feeder) Initial 747

Final 694

Delivered 53

Kaolin (Plate) Initial 13584.5

Final 13642.5

Collected 58
Kaolin (Prefilter) Initial 349

Final 368

Trapped 19

Efficiency (%) 170.58

 Table 3.2: Experimental data using atta flour.

Experiment Amount (grams)

Atta Flour (Feeder) Initial 747

Final 709

Delivered 38

Atta Flour (Plate) Initial 13584.0

Final 13628.0

Collected 44

Atta Flour (Prefilter) Initial 349

Final 350

Trapped 1

Efficiency (%) 118.9

Based on both table 3.1 and 3.2, the delivered powder is higher than the amount inserted into the
feeder and it is shown that the collected kaolin powder on electrostatic plate is higher than the delivered
kaolin powder by 5grams and 6gram respectively. This issues might occur due the external dust from
other experiment flow into the electrostatic precipator equipment.

In comparison, the kaolin powder which have larger surface area is well trapped by electrostatic
plate and prefilter rather than atta flour. However, a relationship between particle surface and
electrostatic charge is not established yet even though this fact is discussed in electrostatic textbooks.
[Lorite, I. et. al. (2011); Chang, A. J. et. al. (1995)]

Efficiency signifies a level of performance that describes a process that uses the lowest amount of
inputs to create the greatest amount of outputs. The efficiency level for kaolin powder experiment is
170%, while for atta powder, the efficiency decrease to 118%. As the amount of collected powder is
high, the efficiency of the electrostatic precipitation is high. However, the result gained throughout this
experiment is considered fail as the efficiency is over than 100%. This problem may happen because
the collected kaolin powder and atta flour are higher than the inital amount.
 Moving into Environmental Quality (Clean Air) Regulations 2014, the electrostatic precipitation
process is classified as a good air pollution control equipment where it able to reduce the potential
emission that cause by air pollutants without any loss.
6.0 Conclusion and recommendation:

From this experiment, we can conclude that the working principle of electrostatic
precipitator is demonstrated. There are two sample were used in this experiment which
are kaolin powder and attar flour. Then, the precipitate contaminant removal by using
electrical or magnetical force. The electrostatic charge is produced when there are two
materials with neutrally charged surfaces come into contact. The existence of non-neutral
charged powder and tribocharged powder will produce electrostatic discharges and lead
to hazard. Therefore, it is important to have an accurate measurement in order to avoid
hazard.
In the experiment, there are some recommendation needed to improve the efficiency
of the powder that being trap in the machine. First, it is compulsory to make sure that the
filter is clean from any dust. It is to prevent inaccurate reading in weighing the filter and
may cause difficulty in calculating the dust that was trap by the electrostatic precipitate.
Then, it was found that there is leakage at the feeder. So, in order the dust is not expose to
surrounding, the feeder must be keep in tight condition.
 7.0 References:

Iwona Adamiec- Wojcik. (2011). MODELLING OF SYSTEMS OF COLLECTING

ELECTRODES . MODELLING OF SYSTEMS OF COLLECTING ELECTRODES
OF ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATORS BY MEANS OF THE RIGID FINITE
ELEMENT METHOD, 1-21.
Parker, K. (2007). Electrical Operation of Electrostatic precipitators. united kingdom: the
institution of engineering and technology.
Lorite, I. et. al. (2011) Electrostatic charge dependence on surface hydroxylation for
different aluminum oxide powders, Ceramics International 38 (2012) pp 1427–1434,
Retrieved from doi:10.1016/j.ceramint.2011.09.024

Freeman Technology (2015) An introduction to powder (pdf), p10, Retrieved from

http://www.alfatest.it/keyportal/uploads/l30_an-introduction-to-powders-booklet.pdf