Water Electrified Sprays for Emission Control in Energy Production Processes

Energy generation by fossil fuels produces significant amount of pollutants. Among the most toxic of them, there are SO2 and particulate matter. The first is a toxic gas that is subjected to severe regulations, the second is only partially regulated since the most toxic fractions of particles, i.e. the ultrafine particles, are nor easily measured neither properly captured by conventional technologies available at commercial level. Electrification of water sprays provide a reliable way to improve both the SO2 mass transfer rates and the particle capture efficiency, thanks to the multiple effects of electric charges imposed on the sprayed droplets. In this paper, we report experimental findings on the use of electrified sprays of water to reduce SO2 and particulate matter form a model flue gas. Tests were performed both laboratory and pilot scale. The experiments are compared with the performances of the same spray operated without electrification. In the pilot scale unit, particle removal efficiency is negligible and SO2 removal is up to 97% with the uncharged spray, The use of induction charging and exposure to corona pre-charging allow achieving >93% reduction of particulate matter and to >99% SO2 reductions. Experiments at laboratory scale shed light on the mechanisms of particle and SO2 capture. In particular, the experimental results revealed that a stochastic scavenging model presented in our former works (data not shown) well described the particle capture and that for charged droplets, the absorption rate for SO2 improved by about 60% respect to uncharged droplets.