Possible application of electrostatic precipitators for local dust control in industry

The historical development of electrostatic precipitation (ESP) has related mainly to the highly successful application to reduction of the concentrations of particulate released from industrial stacks. Some smaller scale applications have been successful, for example the units used for removal of smoke from the air in pubs, etc., and of airborne dust in the workplace. In these latter applications, there may be many different designs, but the general principles are similar in that dust laden air is drawn through a region of corona discharge and electric field and the charged particles collected on the electrodes. Here, a recent approach is described to the problem of treatment of volumes of air which may be larger than those normally dealt with by conventional local exhaust ventilation systems