A CORE SEPARATOR FOR REMOVAL OF RESPIRABLE PARTICULATES

THIS PROGRAM INVOLVES A UNIQUE CONCEPT FOR SEPARATING AND COLLECTING FINE PARTICULATE MATTER FROM INDUSTRIAL FLUE GAS STREAMS. THE CONCEPT, CALLED A CORE SEPARATOR, IS BASED ON THE PRINCIPLE OF INERTIAL SEPARATION, TRADITIONALLY A LOW COST, RELIABLE METHOD OF DUST SEPARATION. HOWEVER, THE RANGE OF PERFORMANCE CAPABILITIES IN INERTIAL DEVICES HAS BEEN A MAJOR LIMITATION GIVEN THEIR LOW COLLECTION EFFICIENCIES FOR PARTICLES SMALLER THAN ABOUT 10 MICRONS. THE CORE SEPARATOR HAS MANY OF THE ADVANTAGES OF OTHER INERTIAL DEVICES, BUT ALSO HAS THE POTENTIAL TO COLLECT MORE THAN 99.9 PERCENT OF PARTICLES SMALLER THAN 10 MICRONS. THE ABILITY OF THIS SEPARATOR TO REMOVE FINE PARTICLES AT HIGH EFFICIENCY IS DUE IN PART TO A UNIQUE GAS SCRUBBER. THE SEPARATOR ALSO IS ABLE TO OVERCOME A COMMON PERFORMANCE LIMITATION CHARACTERISTIC OF OTHER MECHANICAL COLLECTORS, I.E., TURBULENCE ALONG WALL SURFACES AND RE-ENTRAINMENT OF COLLECTED PARTICLES. PROOF OF PRINCIPLE FOR THE CORE SEPARATOR WAS SHOWN IN A SMALL SCALE TEST APPARATUS. HOWEVER, ADDITIONAL QUANTITATIVE DATA ARE REQUIRED TO VERIFY THEORETICAL PREDICTIONS. THUS, A BROAD PHASE I FEASIBILITY STUDY WILL BE CONDUCTED. THE STUDY CONTAINS THREE MAJOR AREAS OF INVESTIGATION: OPERATION AND TESTING OF A COLD FLOW MODEL TO SIMULATE THE CONDITIONS OF AFULL-SCALE UNIT; EXPERIMENTAL TESTING AND ANALYSIS; AND A CONCEPTUAL DESIGN AND FEASIBILITY STUDY. A LARGE PROTOTYPICAL UNIT IS ENVISIONED FOR PHASE II.