Development of EHD-Assisted Plasma Electrostatic Precipitator

A newly developed novel device is able to not only collect low resistive particles generated from diesel engine but also incinerate captured particulates within the same reactor. The new electrohydrodynamically assisted plasma electrostatic precipitator (plasma ESP) is to utilize ionic wind to transport the charged particles effectively into the low electrostatic field region where electrostatic repulsion force acting on particles by induction charge becomes very small, resulting in reentrainment suppression. At the same time, collected particulates are incinerated by ozone and oxidation product of NO2 in the flue gas by the surface discharge plasma so that no particle-handling device is required. The particle-size-dependent collection efficiency and particle incineration were evaluated by the scanning mobility particle sizer and the particle counter. This plasma ESP is particularly important for automobile and marine diesel engine emission control.