The experimental study of a water-saving wet electrostatic precipitator for removing fine particles

•A water-saving wet electrosatic precipitator was designed and tested.•The performance of spray-type ESP is superior to that of other treatment processes.•The particle size corresponding to the lowest fractional collection efficiency varies.•The collection efficiency of the spray-type ESP has no significant variation.

A water-saving wet electrostatic precipitator was designed and tested to study fine particles emission. A Venturi nozzle was added to the front of electrostatic precipitator, which replaced the spray washing in the electric field. The experimental results indicated that the performance of spray-type ESP was superior to that of film-type ESP and other treatment processes. It was worth noticing that the lowest collection efficiency for spray-type ESP varied under different parameters, which distinguished from other types. Furthermore, the efficiency difference of spray-type ESP during given experimental time only had a slight fluctuation in range of ±2.8%.