Evaluation of Fine-Particle Removal Performance of Novel ESP with Highly Durable Chargers and Collectors

Electrostatic precipitators (ESPs) used currently in industries for removing fine particles from semiconductors have to be made of expensive anticorrosive metallic materials in order to maintain their particle-removal performance. To satisfy the economical demands of industries, a novel ESP was developed; in this ESP, the charger is made of carbon fibers and collection plates consist of PET films among which an aluminum sheet is inserted. The ESP was evaluated by changing the voltages applied to tie chargers and collection plates, flow rates, and number of charging channels. KCl particles with mean diameters of 100 nm were used, and a scanning mobility particle sizer was used to measure tie changes in particle number concentrations upstream and downstream of the ESP. The experimental results showed that more than 90% of the particles were removed by using the ESP containing ionizers with nine channels and 65-min collection plates at 500 m(3)/hr when voltages of 7 kV and 10 kV were applied to tie ionizers and collection plates, respectively.