Please choose your delivery country and your customer group
There is evidence that submicrometer aerosols emitted from coal fired power plants are enriched in trace metals of public health concern. Electrical precipitators, which are used to control these particles, exhibit an efficiency minimum in the 0.1 to 1.0 micrometer size range. If a significant fraction of the mass of an undesirable chemical species occurs in a size range in which the collection efficiency is low, large increases in precipitator capacity or power input per unit of gas treated will be required to control the related emissions. The increases in capacity will be much greater than those estimated on the basis of the usual 99+% efficiencies reported on a weight basis. An alternative to modifying precipitator design is to reduce the accumulation of undesirable chemical species in that particle size range in the combustion and post-combustion zones. To be regarded as a viable alternative, this would require basic research into the fundamentals of coal particles combustion followed by practical field experiments.