Effect of Relative Humidity on the Collection Efficiency of a Wire-To-Plane Electrostatic Precipitator

This paper aims to analyse the influence of the atmospheric relative humidity level (RH) on the collection efficiency of a wire-to-plane electrostatic precipitator (WP-ESP). The experiments were performed with incense smoke particles having a mean size of about 0.28 µm. An aerosol spectrometer was employed for characterizing the size distribution of these particles at the outlet of the ESP. Then, the total and fractional collection efficiencies were estimated for different relative humidity levels ranging from 40 to 70 %. Various DC applied voltages in the case of positive and negative polarities have been under consideration. For given atmospheric conditions, the results obtained with the aerosol spectrometer show that the performances of the ESP increases with the applied voltage (range: 10 to 40 kV) and the particle diameter (range: 0.2 to 0.7 µm). The collection efficiency is higher at increased RH. The negative corona discharge is overall more effective than the positive one. However, the difference between the two polarities becomes minor at high RH.