Systems evaluation of the factors that affect the efficiency of an electrostatic precipitator used to clean waste gases

This article examines the cleaning of waste gases formed in steel production. As an effective tool for improving dust-cleaning processes, mathematical modeling requires analytical description of the structural components of the given process and the completion of a systems analysis. The article examines an integrated furnace–smokestack gas-cleaning system which in the general case includes the furnace proper, flues and by-pass channels, waste-heat boiler, electrostatic precipitator, flue-gas pump, and smokestack. Approximate relations are presented to describe theoretical and experimental data on cleaning efficiency. The indices that determine the efficiency of an electrostatic precipitator are divided into two large groups: the properties and parameters of the gas-dust flow; the parameters of the precipitator. The factors that have the greatest effect on the residual dust content of the gas being cleaned are identified.