Acoustic agglomeration power plants

A semi-industrial pilot plant has been developed in which air-borne ultrasound has been applied to the reduction of particle emissions in coal combustion fumes [62]. The installation basically consists of an acoustic agglomeration chamber with a rectangular cross-section, driven by four high-power and highly directional acoustic transducers operating at 10 and/or 20 kHz, and an electrostatic precipitator (ESP). In the experiments, a fluidised bed coal combustor was used as fume generator with fume flow rates up to about 2000 m /h, gas temperatures of about 150 °C. and mass concentrations in the range 1-5 gm. The acoustic filter reduced fine particle emissions by about 40 %. 

Acoustic Agglomeration of Power Plant Fly Ash for Environmental and Hot Gas Cleanup... 

Reethof, G., "Acoustic Agglomeration of Power Plant Fly Ash , Final Report to Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center, U.S. Department of Energy, Contract DEHIC22 83 PC 602070, December 1985. 

In the hot gas clean-up system of a coal-burning fluidized bed power plant, acoustic agglomeration could be installed after the first cleaning cyclones and followed by a high efficiency cyclone. The power required to operate the acoustic agglomerator is about 0.02-0.5<7o of the power plant output. This means that for a 250 MW power plant several hundred kilowatts of acoustic power are needed. Compared with the acoustic power output of a four-engine jet aircraft... 

G. Reethof, Acoustic agglomeration of power plant fly ash for environmental cleanup , in Proceedings of Tenth Annual Powder and Bulk Solids Conferencey Rosemont, 111., USA, 1985, pp. 299-312. 

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