MODULE 4

CONTROL TECHNIQUES
PARTICULATE EMISSION CONTROL:
Particulate matter emitted in gaseous streams consists of discrete and minute suspended particles.
Particle glazes range generally from 100◻m down to 1.0◻m and even less. The choice of
collection devices depends upon a number of footers the physical and chemical characteristics of
particulates, the particle size and concentration in the gas, volume of particulates to be handled,
and the temperature and humidity of gaseous medium. In particular factors like toxicity and
inflammability must be taken into consideration when evaluating operating efficiency.

PARTICULAR CONTROL EQUIPMENT

Control devices re diverted into five major groups
1) Gravitational setting chambers
2) Cyclones
3) Fabric filters
4) Electrostatic precipitators
5) Scrubbers or wet collectors
6) Inertial separators

SETTLING CHAMBERS
It is one of the simplest types of collection equipment for aerosols. The principle it works on is
that it consists of a chamber in which the carrier gas velocity is reduced so as to allow the
particulates to settle out of the moving stream under the action of gravity. It is constructed from
brick and concrete. It is of the form of long box like structure with an inlet and an outlet set
horizontally on the ground. The carrier gas is made and passes at low velocities through the inlet.
The solid particulates having higher density than the surrounding gas settle at the bottom of the
chamber under the influence of gravity which is removed using happens. Usually the gas
velocity must be kept low say less than 3m/sec to prevent re-entertainment of the settled
particles, less than 0.5m/sec for good results and hence to reduce turbulence and uniform
velocity curtains, rods and mesh screens may be suspended in the chamber.

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Fig: Gravity settling chamber

ADVANTAGES:
1. Low initial cost
2. Simple construction
3. Low maintenance cost
4. Low pressure drop
5. Dry and continuous disposal of solid particulates
6. It can be constructed out of any material
7. Temperature and pressure limitations imposed only to be materials of construction used.
DISADVANTAGES:
1) Large space requirements
2) Only large particles can be collected (above 40µ

APPLICATIONS:

Setting chambers are used generally to remove particulates above 40◻ in diameter, such as
carbon black and various metallurgical fumes from agglomerates.
They are used widely for the removal of large solid particles from natural draft furnace, Kilns
etc. and sometimes used in the process industries such as good and metallurgical industries as a
first step in dust control.

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INERTIAL (OR) IMPACT SEPARATORS
There are 3 different types of inertial separators
1) Baffle type separator
2) Louvre type separator
3) Dust traps

BAFFLE TYPE SEPARATOR: It is one of the simplest forms of inertial separator which is
simple to operate. It has no moving parts and construction expenses are more because of As
interior work of fabricating at installing the baffles. Here the gas stream is made to follow a
tortuous flow path which is obtained by the insertion of staggered path into the path of the gas
stream. As a result, the gas is subjected to service of solid surfaces. This device is suitable for
removing particles larger than 20◻ in diameter. These devices are widely used for particulate
removal in power plants and rotary kilns.

LOUVRE TYPE SEPARATOR

Louvre type separator is one of the inertial separators. The separator usually is set at an angle to
the carrier gas stream so as to cause a rapid reversal of the gas flow the direction which causes
particulates to impinge on the louvers which are bound back into the moving gas stream in the
inlet diameter which are removed by secondary air circuit. This device is suitable for removing
particles larger than 30µ in diameter. The efficiency depends on Louvre spacing, closer spacing
producing higher efficiency and the operating velocities are of order 12-15m/s at the inlet.

DUST TRAP
It is another common type of impact separator. Here dust Laden gas is introduced into a control
pipe and is made to undergo a change in direction by 1800, due to inertia the dust settles in the
control chamber. It is not important of reverse flow of gas. The dust trap B used as a pre cleaner
and to reduce the load of the larger diameter particles so as to pass through more efficient
mechanisms, for removing smaller particles. The gas velocity of the inlet is about 10M/S and in
chamber it is about 1 M/S. The collection efficiency for particles greater than 30µ is about 70%.

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CYCLONE SEPARATORS
Cyclone separators diffused centrifugal force generated by the spinning gas stream to separate the
particulate matter from the carrier gas. The centrifugal force on particles in a spinning gas stream is much
greater than gravity therefore cyclones are effective in the removal of much smaller particles than
gravitational setting chambers and negative much less space to handle the same gas volume.

Fig: CYCLONE SEPARATORS

REVERSE FLOW CYCLONE SEPARATOR

A simple reverse flow cyclone separator consists of a vertical cylinder having a conical bottom
and is fitted with a tangential inlet located near the top, and an out-let at the bottom of the cone
for discharging separated particles. The gas outlet pipe is extended into the cylinder to prevent
short circulating of gas from inlet to outlet. In operation, the particle-laden gas open entering the
cyclone cylinder receives a rotating motion. The velocity so formed develops a centrifugal force,
which acts to throw the particles radically towards the wall. The gas spirals downward to the

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bottom of the cone and at the bottom the gas flow reverses to form an inner vertex which leaving
through the outlet pipe.
ADVANTAGES:
1) Low initial cost
2) Simple construction and operation
3) Low pressure drop and low maintenance requirements.
4) It has no moving points
5) Continuous disposal of solid, particles
DISADVANTAGES:

1) Low collection efficiency for particles below 5-10◻ in diameter.

2) Equipment is subjected severe abrasive deterioration.

APPLICATIONS:
1) Cyclones are widely used in cement manufacturers, feed and grain processing and wood
working industries for the control of gas borne particulates.
2) They are used in rock crushing, ore handling, sand conditioning in industries to separate dust
in disintegration operation.
3) Also used as catalyst dusts in the petroleum industry and in the reduction fly ash emissions.

FABRIC FILTERES [BAG HOUSE FILTER]

As the name indicates, it is in the form of a Fabric bag arrangement or cloth envelops. That is
numerous vertical bags 120-400mm diameter and 2-10m long are housed together which are
suspended with open ends attached to a manifold, and a hopper is attached at the bottom for then
collection of dust.
The gas entering through the inlet pipes strikes a baffle plate, which causes the larger particles to
fall into a hopper due to gravity. The carrier gas then flows upwards into tubes and then outward
through the Fabric leaving the surface of the bags, which requires a periodical cleaning by
rapping, shaking or vibration or by reverse air flow.
Some of the operating problems of filters are,

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1) Cleaning
2) Rapture of cloth
3) Temperature
4) Bleeding
5) Humidity
6) Chemical attack

Fig: Removal mechanism in fabric filters

Baffle
wall

Fig: Fabric filter

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Efficiency during pre-coat formation is low but as the pre coat (cake) is formed efficiency is 99%.
Factors Affecting Efficiency:
1) Excessive filter ratios i.e., the ratio of the carrier gas volume to grass filter area, per minute
flow of the gas.
2) Improper selection of filter media

ADVANTAGES:
1) High collection efficiency for all particle sizes especially for particles smaller than 10 mirror
diameter.
2) Simple construction and operation
3) Normal power consumption
4) Dry disposal of collected material

DISADVANTAGES:
1) Operating units are imposed by high carrier gas temperature, high humidity, etc.
2) High maintenance and fabric replacement costs (replacement of lacking bags)

3) Larger size of equipment.

4) Problems in handling dust which may abrade corrode or blind the dust.

APPLICATIONS
Fabric filters are extensively used in the follows industries and operations.
1) Metallurgical industry
2) Foundries
3) Cement lime plants
4) Chalk and lime plants
5) Brick works
6) Ceramic industry
7) Floor Mills etc.

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ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATORS [ESP]
The electrostatic precipitator is one of the most widely used devices for controlling particulate
emissions from industrial installations ranging from house hold appliances to power plants,
cement and proper mills and oil refineries. It is a physical process by which particles suspended
in gas stream are charged electrically and under the influence of the electrical field, separated
from the gas stream.

ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR: Consists of six major components,

i) A source of high voltage
ii) Discharge electrodes and collecting electrodes
iii) Inlet and outlet for the gas
iv) An electric cleaning system
v) ‘Hopper’ for collection and disposal of particulates
vi) An outer casing [called shell] to form an enclosure around the electrodes.

Fig: ESP Mechanism

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Fig: Electrostatic precipitator

TYPES OF PRECIPITATORS
Based on the electrode arrangements they may be classified into
i) Pipe type precipitator

ii) Plate type precipitator

PIPE TYPE PRECIPITATOR

In this type, the nest of parallel pipes acts as the collecting electrode. The pipes may be of round,
square or octagonal cross-section. Generally the pipe is about 30cm or less in diameter. The
discharge electrode is a wire [2.8mm dia] with a small radius of curvature suspended along the
axis of each pipe. The wires are suspended from an insoluble hanger at the top and kept under
tension by weights attached to their lower ends and strong enough to with stand rapping or

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vibrating for cleaning purposes. The gas flow path is down around the outside of the tubes and
then up through the inside of the tubes. The pipe electrodes are 2 to 5m is height / Length.
As the gas flows upwards, electrostatic forces causes the dust particles to migrate to the collector
electrode where they stick. The cleaned gas then emerges at the top. The collected dust (aerosols)
is removed periodically from the collector electrodes by rapping it; this dust then falls to the dust
hopper and is accumulated there for periodic removal. Generally the pipe type precipitators are
used for the removal of liquid particles in which case no cleaning mechanism is required.

Fig: Pipe type ESP

PLATE-TYPE PRECIPITATORS

In the plate-type precipitators, the collecting electrodes consists of parallel plates of size 1-2m
wide and 3-cm high. These parallel plates are special at 20-30cm. The number of plates in the
precipitators depends upon the inlet flow; so that the inlet gas velocities are 1-2m/set in each

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channel. The discharge electrodes are similar to those used in pipe type precipitators. Sometimes
electrodes of square rods (4 to 5mm) and twisted square rods (3.2 to 6.4mm) are used. These
discharge electrodes (i.e. wires), made from non-corrosive materials like tungsten, alloys of steel
and copped are suspended from the top and hang free with a weight attached at the bottom to
keep them straight. The collection of the aerosols takes place on the inner sides of the parallel
plates. The dust material can be removed by rapping and vibrating periodically. The plate type
precipitators are generally employed for the collection of solid particulates.

Fig: Plate type ESP

COLLECTION EFFICIENCY OF ESP
The ESP is a high efficiency collector with 98-99%

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ADVANTAGES:
1) High collection efficiency.

2) Particles as small as 0.1 micron can be removed. Low maintenance and operative cost.
3) Low pressure drop (0.25 to 1.25 of water)
4) Satisfactory handling of large quantities of high temperature gas.
5) Treatment time is negligible (0.1 to 10 seconds)
6) Cleaning is easy by removing units of the precipitator from operation.
7) There is no limit to solid, liquid or corrosive chemical usage.
DISADVANTAGES
1) High initial cost
2) Space requirements is more because of the large size of the equipment
3) Possible explosion hazards during collection of combustible gases or particulates well trained
personnel are necessary to operate.
4) The poisonous gas, ozone is produced by the negatively charged discharge electrodes during
gas ionization.
5) Precautions are necessary to maintain safety during operation.
6) Gases cannot be removed by ESP’s
APPLICATIONS
1) Cement factories: Cleaning of flue gas from cement kilns, recovery of cement dust from kilns.
2) Pulp and paper: Soda-Fume recovery in Kraft pulp mills.
3) Steel plants: Cleaning blast furnace gas, removing tars from coke over gases, cleaning open
hearth and electric furnace gases.
4) Chemical Industries – collection of Sox. Phosphoric Acid mist, cleaning various types of
gases i.e., hydrogen, CO2, SO2, Removing dost from elemental phosphorus in the vapor state.
5) Petroleum industry:- Recovery of catalyst.
6) Carbon black industry: - Agglomeration and collection of carbon black.
7) Thermal Power plants:- collecting Fly ash from coal fired boilers.

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WET SCRUBBERS OR WET COLLECTORS
These devices utilize a liquid called scrubbing liquid such as water to assist in the removal of
particulates from the carrier gas stream. The Operational range for particulate removal by
scrubbers includes material less than 0.2μ in diameter. To large particles which can be suspended
in the gas phase.

COLLECTION MECHANISMS
Particulates are removed from the gas stream by the following merchandisers.
1. IMPINGEMENT: - Here gas containing dust is swept through as area counseling liquid
droplets from where dust particles will impinge upon the droplets, once they adhere they will be
collected by them.

2. INTERCEPTION: - some time particles moving may not impinge on the droplets but can be
captured because they brush against the droplet and adhere there, this is called interception.
3. DIFFUSION: - diffusion of the dispersed solids onto the liquid medium helps in removal of
the particulate matter.
4. CONDENSATION: - condensation of liquid medium vapors on the particulate, increases the
size and weight of particles which can be easily removed.

TYPES OF SCRUBBERS
The common and important types of scrubbers are as follows.
1. Spray towers
2. Venturi Scrubbers.
3. Cyclone Scrubbers.
4. Packed scrubbers.
5. Mechanical Scrubbers.

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SPRAY TOWER
A spray tower is the simplest type of wet scrubber into which water is introduce by means of
spray nozzles. It can be ether round or rectangular in which gas is passes. Counter current to
falling drops of liquid (usually water) from spray nozzles the particle collection can be done by
the mechanism of inertial impaction and interception on the droplets spray towers cause. Very
little pressure loss and can handle large volume of gasser the towers are very effective in
removing particles in excess o0f 10 um. The efficiency of a spray tower depends upon the
droplet size, flow velocity of the gas validity of liquid etc., it is 94% for sill particles to 99% for
25 um particles.

Fig: Spray Tower

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VENTURI SCRUBBERS

They are high energy wet scrubbers with high performance collection of fine particles, usually
smaller than 0.5 5 µm diameter. The high performance of the various scrubber is achieved by
accelerating the gas strew to very high velocities. The droplets accelerate – throat section and
due to the velocity difference between the particles and the droplets the particles are impacted
agonist the slow moving droplets. The celebration continues to some extent into the leveraging
section of the venture. The gas liquid mixture is then directed to a separation device such as
cyclone separator where particulate matter is separated from the gas stream. The application of
various scrubber is more often in Kraft mill furnaces metallurgical furnaces Sulphuric Acid
concentrators etc., for removing mists and dusts from gases.

Fig: Venturi Scrubber

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CYCLONE SCRUBBERS:
It is the modification of the dry cyclone by the addition of liquid phase. In cyclone scrubbers the
gas is tangentially swirled around, same as in dry cyclone. Water sprays from the top of cyclone
and outside the wall. These sprays assist in the collection of the dispersed and prevent re
entertainment. In cyclone scrubbers inertial impaction and separation are the main collection
mechanisms. For droplets of 100um efficiency approaches 100% and 90 to 98% removal is
achieved for droplets between 5 and 50µm.

Fig: Cyclonic spray scrubber

PACKED SCRUBBER (PACKED TOWER)
In packed scrubber fiber glass (fine glass filaments) or other packing (coke or broken stone)
accused as the collection material. The polluted gas stream moves upward in a counter current
flow packed scrubber and comes in contact with the scrubbing liquid stream which is moving
downward over the packing in a film. The gas stream pass through the packing pore spaces and
captures the particles by inertial impaction. Because of the good mass transfer characteristics of
the packing, efficient collection of the fine particles by diffusion is also possible. Similar packing
increases the efficiency of collection but its shape does not appear to affect the collection
efficiency. Sometimes packing towards encounter plugging problems, which can be reduced by
employing sprays to wash the packing or by using low density spheres etc.,

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Fig: Packed Tower

MECHANICAL SCRUBBER:
It is the high energy scrubber and ha mechanical means of breaking up the scrubbing liquid into
small droplet and simultaneously creating turbulence. It has internal rotating mechanical part,
where the liquid dispersed contact is achieved by the simultaneously introduction of the liquid
medium and the gas stream. The scrubbing liquid dribbles down on the rotating part and is struck
violently and disintegrated by the centrifugal force and are removed quite easily. These scrubbers
have a high initial cost; high operating cost and requires considerable maintenance.

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Fig: Centrifugal fan scrubber and Induced spray scrubber

ADVANTAGES OF SCRUBBERS (WET COLLECTORS)

1. Simultaneous removal of gases and particulates
2. Effective performance ever a wide loading range
3. Equipment occupies only a moderate amount of space compared to dry collectors such as bag
houses.
4. Hazards of explosive dust air mixtures air reduced.
5. Indifference to the temperature and moisture content of gas.
6. Corrosive gases may be neutralized by proper choice of scrubbing liquid.

DISADVANTAGES:
1. Relatively high energy costs
2. Problem of wet sludge disposal
3. Corrosion problems
4. Visible wet plume, reduction to buoyancy.
5. Very small particles (sub-micron particles) may not be captured

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