A New Electrostatic Mist Eliminator Developed
A South Korean research team has developed an environment-friendly facility that can reduce fine dust emissions from coal-fired thermal power plants to a tenth. The clean technology can reduce fine dust emissions of thermal power plants to the level of LNG gas power plants.
The Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM) announced on May 21 that a research team led by Dr. Kim Yong-jin has developed, in cooperation with Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co., an electrostatic mist eliminator (EME) which can lower fine dust emissions from coal-fired thermal power plants to less than 0.5 mg per cubic meter.
Chimneys of coal-fired thermal power plants currently have a desulfurizer to treat exhaust gases. On the top of the desulfurizer is a mist eliminator (ME) that removes contamination particles using centrifugal force or inertial impaction. However, a high-priced EME is needed as an ME cannot completely remove small particles of 20 micrometers or smaller.
The research team integrated an electric precipitator into an ME to increase the pollutant removal efficiency by more than 10 times. It removes pollutants after electrically pushing pollutant particles into a corner.
The new equipment can be added in the desulfurization system and it can reduce fine dust levels to less than 0.5 milligrams per cubic meter, which is one tenth of the world’s highest emission standard, which is 5 milligrams. The research team successfully completed the test after installing the actual-size module pilot facility at Doosan Heavy’s plant in Changwon. In addition, it is planning to finish designing a 500 ㎿ EME and test it at coal-fired power plants.