Multi-nozzle electrospray system for gas cleaning processes

A multi-nozzle electrospray system was developed as a charged droplet source for cleaning a gas contaminated with fine particles. The efficiency of removal of fine particles from the gas can be significantly increased, as compared to uncharged sprays, when the droplets are electrically charged. In the presented experiments, the spray of the droplets of size lower than 100 μm was charged either positively or negatively. Cigarette smoke was used as a source of submicrometer particles. The suppression of the particle concentration was determined after different time intervals of spraying of water. Further improvement in gas cleaning was obtained after charging the smoke particles using a specially designed corona charger. The efficiency of the cleaning process was similar to that obtained for droplets generated by mechanical atomisers with induction charging, but the electrospraying allowed decreasing the water consumption up to about three times.