ESP Performance Improvement can be Substantial - Hot Topic Conclusion on January 20

There has been lots of focus on replacing ESPs with baghouses to meet upcoming regulations. The speakers in the Hot Topic Hour yesterday said there is an alternative. You can upgrade existing ESPs and achieve results which may satisfy future requirements.

Dr. Yougen Kong, P.E., Technical Development Manager at Solvay Chemicals, Inc., told the attendees that “there is a better alternative to SO₃ for conditioning electrostatic precipitators.” Trona addition system is simple and its capital cost is much lower than that of a SO₃ production and injection system. Trona is relatively inexpensive and can be injected in several places.

Mick Chambers, Southern Environmental, Inc, said that you can upgrade your ESP and with halogen-based additives in the coal, you can meet the particulate and mercury regulations. He showed that the SCA of recent installations has been relatively low and yet the performance high. So the footprint of a retrofit does not have to be large. When asked about the wet ESP using a fabric for the collection plate, Mick said that it is a good option and successful on industrial boilers and process applications.

We were sorry to learn that John Caine passed away in a tractor accident last September. John had represented SEI in several of our previous Hot Topic Hours and has long been a contributor to the industry.

Steve Jaasund, Manager Geoenergy Division A. H. Lundberg Associates, made a case for adding a wet ESP after the FGD system to meet the upcoming MACT regulations. In the discussion period it was speculated that the new mass monitoring requirements would make it more difficult for dry ESPs to meet emission limits. The wet ESP will eliminate the exceedance spikes associated with a stand-alone dry ESP.

Paul Leanza of Pollution Control Services, Inc. indicated that many utilities have the opportunity to greatly improve performance of their existing precipitators. He indicated that 50 percent of the emissions occur during rapping (rapping reentrainment). These particles are relatively large and do not cause opacity spikes proportional to the mass increase. It was speculated that with mass monitoring this phenomenon will be an unpleasant surprise. Emissions will be higher with mass monitors than they were thought to be with opacity monitors and periodic stack testing.

Ron Landreth of Albemarle was pleased to find that their brominated PAC actually improves precipitator performance whereas the non-brominated PAC may add to emissions. So it is worth considering brominated PAC to capture mercury and reduce particulate.

Jean Bustard of ADA-ES (ADA Environmental Solutions LLC) related experience with a proprietary conditioning chemical which has performed well and does not impact mercury capture with PAC. The company offers another approach to conditioning hot side precipitators.

The Bios, Abstracts and Photos are linked below.

BIOS, PHOTOS, ABSTRACTS - January 20, 2011.htm