Technical operating characteristics of separators

The separation capacity, pressure losses and energy consumption are the most important parameters of separators, and these can help to establish relevant characteristics for the choice and evaluation of separators. They are dependent on a number of factors, of which the following are the most important dirty gas inlet flow rate, its composition and conditions concentration of the particles in the gas together with their physical and chemical characteristics and the operating regime of the separator. 

The separation efficiency is a measure of the performance of a given separator, and both total and fractional separation efficiencies can be considered. It may be expressed in mass units or in terms of the numbers of particles, so that the separation efficiency expressed in mass or in a number of particles is obtained. 

The total separation efficiency S is the ratio of the amount of dust retained in the separator per unit time to the amount of the particles entering the separator per unit time (M ). It is thus possible to write 

The total separation efficiency cannot express differences between separations of particular dust fractions. This value varies depending on the granulometric composition of the dust entering the separator, since the efficiency is dependent on grain size. 

The fractional separation efficiency Sf is defined in the same way as the total separation efficiency, but it is related to particles of a certain size. In industrial practice, a curve of the fractional separation is used, which presents the separation efficiency of a given separating unit for different particle sizes (dependence S d), where d is the equivalent diameter of the particle). 

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