POST-CYCLONE (POC) - AN INNOVATIVE WAY TO REDUCE THE EMISSION OF FINES FROM INDUSTRIAL CYCLONES

A novel approach for reducing the emission of industrial-scale cyclone s of particles smaller than 10 mu m is presented. Utilizing the strong swirl already present in the vortex finder of a conventional cyclone, the escaped dust from the cyclone is collected in a so-called ''Post Cyclone'' (PoC), which is a cylindrical annular shell located on top o f the vortex finder. Experiments were conducted in a cyclone larger th an the usual laboratory range (diameter = 0.4 m) with different config urations of the PoC and spanning a range of operating conditions. Flow patterns and collection efficiencies for the cyclone and the PoC, bot h individually and in combination, were calculated and compared with e xperimental data. Both the experiments and simulations indicate a decr ease in emission of particles of 1-3 mu m by around 30%, rising with p article size to around 50% for 5 mu m particles.