Semipilot plant pulse energized cold-precharger electrostatic precipitator tests for collection of moderately high resistivity flyash particles

The performance of an electrostatic precipitator (ESP) to collect moderately high resistivity flyash has been tested under pulse/precharger energization using the semipilot scale integrated electrostatics combustion flue gas (IECFG) cleaning system at Ontario Hydro's 640 MJ/h Combustion Research Facility Center. The pulse energization enhanced the performance of the existing de-energized wire-plate electrostatic precipitator in collecting moderately high resistivity (/spl rho//spl sim/10/sup 10/ /spl Omega//spl middot/cm) flyash. A 26% improvement in particle collection efficiency and 30% energy saving were obtained with pulse energization, with moderately high resistivity flyash generated by burning high-sulfur (3.7%) Nova Scotia coal with limestone conditioning. The cold precharger specially designed to suit the three-stage wire-plate ESP has also been tested for its ability to improve the performance of ESP in reducing the back corona. With an additional 30% of energy supplied to the precharger it was possible to obtain up to 40% enhancement in collection efficiency. In general an enhancement factor of 1.8-2.8 was obtained with dust loading /spl sim/2 g/m/sup 3/. A thyratron switched pulse power supply was used for the ESP.