Agglomeration of particles during coal combustion in multistage spouted fluidized tower

An experimental platform of spray agglomeration has been designed and built for removing small fly ash particles (PM10) from coal combustion. Systematic experiments were conducted in a multistage spouted tower using kinds of agglomerant solutions. The particle concentration increases greatly from the first stage to the second stage of the tower. With the increase of flue gas flow rate the oscillation of impulse signal response curves increases and the internal circulation of the tower intensifies. The influencing factors such as the surfactant, PH value, flow rate of the agglomerant solutions and inlet flue gas temperature were analyzed. SEM was used to analyze the microstructure of the particles. Final results indicate that the special shape of a multistage spouted fluidized tower has significant influences on the effect of agglomeration. The findings from this work will be helpful to form the basis, and provide guidance for, further studies on the control of fine particles such as PM2.5 or even smaller.