Highly efficient removal of sulfuric acid aerosol by a combined wet electrostatic precipitator

Eliminating sulfuric acid aerosol from flue gas is of vital importance to improve air quality. In this paper, a wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP) assisted with novel pre-charger was proposed to efficiently remove sulfuric acid aerosol. Parameters including residence time, gas temperature and SO3 concentration were studied to find the key factors influencing sulfuric acid aerosol removal. Results showed that the removal efficiency of sulfuric acid aerosol increased with the increasing residence time and the decreasing gas temperature. The maximum corona current was reduced from 0.79 to 0.28 mA when the SO3 concentration increased from 0 to 25 ppm, and the removal efficiency also decreased with the increasing SO3 concentration. A novel perforated pre-charger was designed to improve the WESP performance for sulfuric acid aerosol removal. With assistance of the pre-charger, the removal efficiency was improved from 90.3 to 95.8%, and the corresponding emission concentration was lower than 2 mg m(-3). Moreover, the removal efficiency could be further improved to 97.8% with a heat exchanger, and the corresponding emission concentration could be lower than 1 mg m(-3).