Surface Plasma Electrode for Electrostatic Precipitators

Electrostatic precipitators are widely used for the removal of particulate matter from boiler exhaust gases. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgation of National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) from Industrial, Commercial, and Institutional Boilers and Process Heaters will require industry to install many new high-performance precipitators on such sources in the coming years. The surface plasma (SP) electrode is an innovative technology intended to replace the conventional corona discharge electrodes in electrostatic precipitators. Laboratory investigations have shown that SP electrodes are capable of increasing the useful electrical power input to a precipitator by 1.5 to 2 times. This promises to result in a two-fold improvement in performance and a corresponding significant reduction in the cost of new precipitator installation. With the SP electrode, precipitators for small oil and coal fired boilers could be made significantly more efficient at removing fine particulate matter from their effluent gases. The proposed Phase I research is to demonstrate and quantify the improved performance of SP electrodes on a precipitator treating a slip stream of exhaust gases from a coal-fired boiler. If successful, a Phase II full-scale installation would be called for. Both of these are necessary steps in commercialization of the SP technology. If completed successfully, these two phases would be sufficient to bring the technology to commercialization. It is anticipated that the SP electrode technology will be licensed to existing precipitator manufacturers in the United States and included with their equipment. The design of the SP electrodes lends itself to use with electrostatic precipitators with very little change to their basic design. If demonstrated at full scale and technically successful, the SP electrode could become standard equipment in electrostatic precipitators installed on small industrial boilers. The improved performance they afford would decrease particulate emissions to the atmosphere and/or decrease the cost of precipitator installations. This would represent a significant advancement for particulate control technology.