Main Topics

• Key features
• ESP Construction
• Principle of operation
• Factors influencing the
performance of ESP
• Safety Measures
• Details of ESPs at Yanbu
and Common Problems
 Key Features of ESP
• High installation cost but low operation cost
• Low pressure drop.
• Less maintenance required.
• No physical obstacle (unlike bag filters) to capture the dust
• Unique method of dozing out the dust, perpendicular to the
flow of electrostatic Charging.
• Performance depends on synchronization of various
functional aspects of different fields (like electrical,
Mechanical and process).
• Efficiency as high as 99.9%
• Efficiency fluctuates with process conditions (like temp. &
% of water)
• Performance increases with increase in Dew point (Min.
Dew point 50°C).
• Not suitable for High resistivity dust.
• Hot ESP can handle gas temp. as high as 350°C.
• Well suited to treat alkali rich raw materials.
ESP Construction - External
ESP Construction - Internal
ESP Construction - Internal
 TERMINOLOGY
• DISCHARGE ELCTRODE (DE)
o UNDER THE APPLICATION OF VERY HIGH DC VOLTAGE,
o DISCHARGES FREE ELECTRONS WHICH IN TURN IONIZES THE GAS AND DUST PARTICLES.

• COLLECTING ELECTRODE (CE)

o GENERALLY AT THE GROUND POTENTIAL,
o COLLECTS THE CHARGED DUST PARTICLES AND NEUTRALIZES THEIR CHARGE.

• CORONA DISCHARGE
WHEN THE HIGH DC NEGATIVE POTENTIAL, APPLIED TO THE DISCHARGE ELCTRODE
W.R.T. THE GROUNDED COLLECTING ELECTRODE, IS INCREASED, AT A PARTICULAR
VOLTAGE THE BREAKDOWN OF THE MEDIUM TAKES PLACE, RESULTING IN THE
DISCHARGE OF FREE ELECTRONS FROM THE DISCHARGE ELECTRODES. THIS
PHENOMENON IS KNOWN AS ‘CORONA DISCHARGE’.

• DEW POINT
THE TEMP. AT WHICH THE MOISTURE PRESENT IN THE GAS/ AIR CONDENSES AND
APPEARS AS “DEW”.

• RESISTIVITY
THE ELECTRICAL RESISTANCE OF ONE CUBIC CENTIMETER DUST PARTICLE,
EXPRESSED IN UNITS “OHM-CENTIMETER”. IT IS THE TYPICAL ELECTRICAL
CHARACTERISTICS OF DUST AND THE PERFORMANCE OF ESP IS VERY SENSITIVE TO
THIS PARAMETER.
PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
• High DC negative potential is
applied to DE w.r.t. grounded
collecting electrode
• Above dielectric strength, the
breakdown of medium takes
place
• Discharge of free electrons
from DE which move
towards CE.
• Ionizes gas molecules &
charges dust particles
negatively
• These negatively charged
dust particles move towards
CE, gets collected & loose
their charge.
CRITICAL PARAMETERS OF ESP

1. Migration Velocity
2. Resistivity
3. Voltage and Current
1. Migration Velocity: It is the velocity, at which a charged dust
moves towards the collecting electrode.
Clean Gas

Discharge
Electrode Collecting

- Migration
Velocity
+
Electrode

Dust laden gas flow

• High influence on the dust collecting performance
• Parameters affecting Migration Velocity:
Electrical resistivity of the dust,
Electric field intensity,
Corona discharge current,
Dust particle size,
Viscosity of gas,
Design feature of gas, electrodes, precipitator etc.
2. Resistivity:
• Plays an important role for satisfactory performance of ESP

•For the most favorable performance of the ESP, the

Resistivity of the dust should be between that of good
electrical conductor and that of a non conductor (Porcelain).

•The resistivity should be between 109 and 1011 Ohm-cm.

However the new technologies are capable of collecting dust
having resistivity as high as 2 X 1013 Ohm-cm effectively.
3. Voltage and Current:
 In ESPs, more than one electrical fields are created through
separate source of voltage.
 These fields are usually numbered as 1,2,3…. from inlet
side.
 Voltage is the pushing source for the dust particle
accelerating them towards the collecting plates.
 Higher acceleration towards the collecting plates can result
in increased efficiency.
 The voltage pushes the dust particle, and the corona
current holds the particle charging. The higher particle size
charging results in higher Migration velocity and therefore
it also improves the efficiency.
 ESPs develop different voltage and current level in different
fields. The efficiency of dust separation of each field is
proportional to the electrical works i.e. the product of
voltage and current for that particular field.
 EFFICIENCY
The performance of ESP is measured in terms of
Efficiency, which is defined as follows:

D in D out
ESP
(D in – D out)
Efficiency (%) = ή(%) = X 100
D in
Where, ή = efficiency,
D in = Dust concentration at the inlet,
D out = Dust concentration at the outlet,
In ESP an efficiency of 99.9% is achievable.
 However it may be appreciated that the efficiency as described by the
above formula will be higher for higher dust concentration at the inlet even
at the same outlet condition.
 It is not possible to get an idea about the gas outlet condition just by the
value of efficiency and therefore sometimes it may be misleading also.
 That is why it is specified that the outlet dust concentration of an ESP as
a measure of it’s performance and not efficiency.
 Deutsch – Anderson Formula
Efficiency in ESP can be expressed by the Deutsch Anderson
formula as: ωl
ή=1-e sv

Where
ή = Efficiency,
e = Natural exponential function,
ω= Migration Velocity in meters per second
l = The sum of lengths of CEs
in gas flow direction in meters.
s = Distance between CE and DE in meters.
v = The Gas velocity through ESP in meters per second.

Further Migration Velocity is expressed as ω= k.Ep.Ea.D,

Where Ep = The electric field peak value in KV/cm.

Ea = The electric field mean value in KV/cm,
D = The average diameter of dust particle in Microns.
and k = Constant.
 GAS VELOCITY AND PARTICLE MIGRATION VELOCITY IN ESPs
Type of Plant Mean Gas velocity Migration Velocity
m/s m/s
Wet Process Rotary Kiln 0.9–1.3 0 . 09 – 0 . 13

Rotary kiln Grate pre-heater 0.8–1.2 0 . 08 – 0 . 12

Rotary kiln with cyclone pre-heater and 0.8–1.2 0 . 08 – 0 . 12

Conditioning tower.
Rotary kiln with cyclone pre-heater and Exit 0.6–1.0 0 . 06 – 0 . 10
Gas utilization
Short Kiln 0.6–1.0 0 . 06 – 0 . 10

Grate Cooler 0.5–0.8 0. 04 – 0 . 08

Dryer, Grinding / Drying plant 0.6–1.2 0. 06 – 0 . 12

Tube mill with Water injection 0.6–1.0 0 . 06 – 0 . 10

 The value of “Migration Velocity” in general is one tenth of gas velocity.

 The actual migration velocity depends on process conditions like moisture
content, particle size distribution, gas composition and dust chemical
composition
FACTORS INFLUENCING THE PERFORMANCE OF ESPs
A) PROCESS:
1. Particle Size Distribution.
2. Dust Concentration.
3. Dust Resistivity.
4. Temperature of Gas
5. Moisture content / Dew point.
6. Gas Distribution.

B) METHOD OF OPERATION:
1. Operation of CT
2. Rapping Frequency.
3. Insulator Heating.
4. Positive EP.

C) MECHANICAL CONDITION:
1. Health of Rapping Mechanism.
2. Conditions of Electrodes.
3. Door Sealing.
1. Particle Size Distribution:
 Under the application of electric field coarse particles attain higher
charge and higher migration velocity.
 Therefore coarse particles will be collected easily as compared to
the fines and the efficiency will reduce with increase in fineness.
Depending on PSD, dust of different fineness gets collected in
different fields.
2.DUST CONCENTRATION:
Major changes in dust concentration
affect the ESP performance as this
parameter affects the development of
voltage and current in precipitator.

For a precipitator to perform well, both

voltage and current of precipitator are
important. While the voltage is responsible
for pushing the dust particles towards the
CE, the current is responsible for keeping
them there.

The performance of ESP is related to the

product of voltage and current i.e. electrical
work.

A well designed precipitator under ideal

operating conditions, will go to the
maximum value of precipitator voltage and
current of the transformer rectifier set
values.
3. DUST RESISTIVITY:
In ESP the term Resistivity can be defined as the electrical
resistance of one cubic cm of the kiln dust expressed in units of
ohm-cm.

From experience it is known that the precipitator attain the

highest collection efficiency at a Resistivity of dust particle
between 109 and 1011 Ohm – cm.

Dust particles emitted during different manufacturing process

have electric Resistivity over a wide range depending on the
process and sometimes it can be as high as 1014 ohm-cm.

Following figures shows Resistivity curves for different types of

dust. It can be noted that for the same ESP the dust from the wet
kiln is with low resistivity will show much better efficiency
compared to Cooler dust which has much high Resistivity.
 Back Corona
The Maximum amount value of the voltage
drop that a layer of cement dust can support
without break down is defined by its di-
electric strength. This value is typically in the
order of 15-20KV. When this value is
exceeded, either the formation of Back
corona or the propagation of spark across the
entire electrode space results in.

Back corona can be explained as having two

sources of corona generation. The new emitter
comes of the dust layer, electrically breaking
down on the plate.
4.Temperature: The temperature of gas has profound effect on EP
performance as it has a direct effect on Resistivity of dust. As the water
conditioning increases and the gas is cooled more and more, the precipitator
voltage increases dramatically and the performance improves
correspondingly.
ELECTRICAL PARAMETERS:
• The automatic voltage control is
actually the brain of ESP process.
• The control, through its primary and
secondary current and voltage
determines the power level and spark
rates within each field of precipitator.
• Initially it exhibits a straight line
relationship where a small increase in
input power produces substantial
increase in collection efficiency.
• After a certain point, further
increase in power have little or no
effect on improving overall efficiency.
• All the power in surrounding is not
going to collect last particle of dust
rather it becomes more of a game of
probability that the science of
precipitation.
 BASIC ELECTRICAL CONTROL CIRUIT OF ESP

COMPONENTS OF LOW AND HIGH VOLTAGE SECION

LOW VOLTAGE SIDE
Isolator, Fuses, Bi-Directional
Thyristors, Linear reactor, High
voltage step up transformer,
Primary feed back circuit.
HIGH VOLTAGE SIDE
Diode bridge, Damping
resistance, Voltage and current
feedback resistors
SPARKING & ARCING:
Sparking is defined as an
electrical breakdown of the
gas in a ESP and is directly
related to precipitators
voltage levels. On the other
hand severe sparking at a
very high intensity across
the precipitator’s
discharge and collecting
electrodes is known as
Arcing or Flashover. It is a
phenomenon of electrical
short circuiting between
discharge and collecting
electrodes.
 V – I CURVES
The voltage and current curve to precipitator is like a stethoscope to
a cardiologist. A V-I curve is drawn with Kilo volt on X axis and
milliamps on Y axis, The fig shown the behavior of EP in normal
conditions.
 Diagnosis by V-I curve
 Back corona
 High resistivity dust
 Grounding of high voltage
electrodes
 Excessive dust build up on
the high voltage electrodes
where it behave as if the wire
diameter of the high voltage
electrodes has been increased.
 The problem with the wire
build up is that it is not possible
to achieve a high current with
respect to clean wires, thereby
adversely affecting the
efficiency.
 Safety measures while working inside ESP
1. Ensure that ESP fans are not running and that the
dampers are closed.
2. Stop the entire rapping system
3. Ensure that hoppers are empty and then only the
transport system should be switched off.
4. Obtain the LINE CLEAR.
 Main switch should be switched off
 Warning plate should be displayed
 Earthing rods to be provided at the HV side after switching off
5. Make sure that ESP is cooled down enough for working
and the ‘CO’ levels are nil.
6. Make use of all Safety tools & tackles – Safety shoes,
Goggles, Face mask, Hand gloves, Safety belts, Safety
helmet & Hand lamp (only 24 AC allowed)
 Safety measures while working inside ESP
7. One person must stand outside ESP for emergency needs
8. While coming out of ESP after completion of the jobs,
ensure that all the chambers are cleared off the tools and
scrap material
9. Once the job is over hoppers are to be checked for any
foreign material before running the auxiliaries.
10. Ensure that all the doors of ESp are locked properly and
all the door lock keys are put back in the key pad.
11. Return the Line clear back.