The Trielectrode Electrostatic Precipitator for Collecting High Resistivity Dust

High resistivity dust is normally the major problem in electrostatic precipitation. Even though the corona current is only a fraction of a microampere per cm² the resulting RI drop exceeds the breakdown voltage gradient of the dust layer. This breakdown or sparking through the collected dust causes the familiar back corona and premature sparkover. The Trielectrode Electrostatic Precipitator (TEP) is an effort to make precipitator performance insensitive to dust resistivity. The TEP (U. S. Patent 3,915,672) is based on the concept that the layer of collected dust behaves like capacitance and resistance in parallel so that the corona can occur in short pulses and yet maintain a moderately constant current through the dust layer. In between corona pulses the precipitating field is supplied by a third set of electrodes. Initial bench scale tests using high resistivity particulate indicate that the concept is sound. Recent testing has extended the effective operating range of the TEP for particulate resistivities of 10¹⁰-10¹³ ohm-cm indicating that the TEP is essentially insensitive to particulate resistivity and can give a constant high collection efficiency regardless of the type of coal burned in a utility application.