Development and industrial application of wet phase transition agglomerator for water recovery and synergistic removal of multiple pollutants from flue gas

In this work, a wet phase transition agglomerator (WPTA) was designed and installed in a coal-fired boiler with a steam capacity of 280 t/h. The effects of WPTA with/without wet electrostatic precipitator (WESP) were studied on filterable particulate matter (FPM), condensable particulate matter (CPM) and SO3. The numerical simulation methods were used to explore the mechanisms of water recovery and particulate matter (PM) removal. The results indicate that WPTA has better removal for CPM, SO3, and trace metals (TEs). The FPM removal efficiency of WPTA is 47.18 % and it is 51.30 % for WESP. The CPM removal efficiencies of WPTA and WESP are 49.86 % and 37.11 %, respectively. WPTA can remove SO3, while WESP increases the concentration of SO3 due to the oxidization of SO2 to SO3 in the high-voltage electric field. The simulations results show that the increase of the surface wettability of fine PM can improve the nucleation. Moreover, WPTA can recover the water and heat from the flue gas with the rate of 2.73-4.09 t/h and 1.83-2.19 MW, respectively. The recovered water can be provided to the desulfurization process. Therefore, WPTA has good environmental and economic benefits, and it has the potential to replace WESP.