The effect of corona charged particles in gas filtration cakes

• Grant number: 11/22942-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): March 01, 2012
• Effective date (End): June 30, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Chemical Engineering - Industrial Operations and Equipment for Chemical Engineering
• Principal Investigator: Mônica Lopes Aguiar
• Grantee: Jessica Cavalcante dos Reis
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Exatas e de Tecnologia (CCET). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Gas filtration is a very important operation for the air quality control, because it prevents pollutants from reaching the atmosphere. To improve this operation it is necessary to study an essential design parameter such as the porosity of gas filtration cake. This is a very important structural property, since both the pressure drop across the filter and the force required to remove the dust cake depend on it. The presence of electrostatic charged particles in the filtration process has been a factor that contributes significantly to the performance of the media, such as increasing the collection efficiency and reducing the pressure drop in the filter (COURY, 1983, DUARTE Fo. , 1995 and RODRIGUES, 2005). It is known that electrostaticaly charging the dust particles induces the formation of filtration cakes with lower resistance to gas flow and easier removal, however, this relation has not been quantified for fibrous filters, the most widely used in industry. This study proposes to evaluate the effect of particle charging in the formation of gas filtration cakes through the analysis of porosity and particle distribution in the cake and the filter. In order to do so, the porosity will be determined by the Indirect Method proposed by Coury in 1983, which uses classical flow equations that determine the porosity as a function of pressure drop and time; and by the Direct Method proposed by Aguiar and Coury in 1995 that analyzes cross-sectional images obtained from SEM of the filtration cake. Thus, it is expected to make a comparison between the filter cakes formed with and without electrostatic charge, which will allow to understand how the porosity of the filtration cake changes with the presence of electrostatic charges in order to provide a lower packing density of the particles.