SEMIPILOT PLANT PULSE ENERGIZED COLD-PRECHARGER ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR TESTS FOR COLLECTION OF MODERATELY HIGH-RESISTIVITY FLY-ASH PARTICLES

The performance of an electrostatic precipitator (ESP) to collect mode rately high resistivity flyash has been tested under pulse/precharger energization using the semipilot scale integrated electrostatics combu stion flue gas (IECFG) cleaning system at Ontario Hydro's 640 MJ/h Com bustion Research Facility Center. The pulse energization enhanced the performance of the existing de energized wire-plate electrostatic prec ipitator in collecting moderately high resistivity (rho similar to 10( 10) Omega . cm) fly-ash, A 26% improvement in particle collection effi ciency and 30% energy saving were obtained with pulse energization, wi th moderately high resistivity flyash generated by burning high-sulfur (3.7%) Nova Scotia coal with limestone conditioning. The cold prechar ger specially designed to suit the three-stage wire-plate ESP has also been tested for its ability to improve the performance of ESP in redu cing the back corona. With an additional 30% of energy supplied to the precharger it was possible to obtain up to 40% enhancement in collect ion efficiency. In general an enhancement factor of 1.8-2.8 was obtain ed with dust loading similar to 2 g/m(3).