Electrical characteristics of electrostatic precipitator with a wet membrane-based collecting electrode

• We studied the electrical characteristics of a new collecting electrode.
• Discharge current density of the new electrode is approximately 2 times of the metal.
• Ratio of the discharge current density between the wet and metal is not a constant.
• Two times of discharge current density is the main reason for the higher collection efficiency.

Electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) with the wet membrane-based collecting electrode play an important role on the flue gas cleaning process. However, the mechanism researches on the excellent collection efficiency of the membrane-based ESPs are insufficient. This paper aims at characterizing the excellent collection efficiency of the ESPs in the aspect of the electrical characteristics. The discharge current density and distribution of the metal and wet membranes collecting electrode were measured using the boundary probe method under different conditions. The differences of the discharge current density and distribution between the wet membranes collecting electrode and the metal one were discussed in detail. In addition, the effects of applied voltage, distance between the electrodes and discharge electrode construction on the difference of the discharge current density between the wet membranes electrode and the metal one were also presented. The results show that the discharge current density is strongly increased by the wet membranes electrode, the increased discharge current density is the main reason for the excellent collection efficiency of the membrane-based WESPs.