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AN ELECTRIFYING NEW SOLUTION TO AN OLD PROBLEM?
Citation:
Felix, L., J. P. Gooch, AND R. F. Heaphy. AN ELECTRIFYING NEW SOLUTION TO AN OLD PROBLEM? POLLUTION ENGINEERING 32(7):38-42, (2000).
Description:
The adverse health effects of particles have been linked to many factors, including particle size. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) first issued National Ambient Air QualityStandards (NAAQS) for particular matter (PM) in 1971, amended the standards in 1987 for particles of aerodynamic diameter less than 10 um (PM10), and have recently proposed standards for particles less than 2.5 um in aerodynamic diameter (PM2.5). A growing body of toxicologiccal evidence is being gathered that implicates particle metal content and surface area as factors in particle toxicity [1-5]. This effort is an attempt to correlate both PM2.5 and PM1.0 from pulverized coal combustion, with the type of emission control system, and point to ways of reducing these emissions.
The mass of the primary fine particle emissions (such as measured in the dry filter of EPA Method 17) from most large coal-fired combustion sources is a small fraction of the potential mass of secondary fine PM that may form downstream of the emitting source by atmospheric reactions involving sulfur oxides (SOx) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). Therefore, it is generally believed that a requirement to reduce ambient fine PM concentrations will result in more stringent SOx and NOx control regulations . [6] Primary fine PM control, however, may receive increased emphasis in the future because of both health effects issues and local plume visibility problems. Conventional fabric filter and electrostatic precipitators can achieve effective control of primary fine PM, but he design parameters necessary for effective control using these systems usually result in a large device which occupies a considerable amount of ground space.
Under a cooperative Agreement with the U.S. EPA, Southern Research Institute is testing an updated version of a promising fine PM control technology. This technology is referred to as electrostatically stimulated fabric filtration of ESFF. The essence of this technology is that it combines the benefits of filtration and electrostatic precipitation in a smaller footprint than is possible using existing electrostatic precipitator (ESP) technology. This approach is not new but, as with many applications of an innovative technlogy, success can depend on how the technology is implemented.