Article
Article
Electrostatic precipitator
Article By:
Mill, George S. Research Chemist, Shell Oil Company, New York, New York.
Milligan, W. O. Robert A. Welch Foundation, Houston, Texas.
Last reviewed:January 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.227000
A device used to remove liquid droplets or solid particles from a gas in which they are suspended. The process depends on two steps. In the first step the suspension passes through an electric discharge (corona discharge) area where ionization of the gas occurs. The ions produced collide with the suspended particles and confer on them an electric charge. The charged particles drift toward an electrode of opposite sign and are deposited on the electrode where their electric charge is neutralized. The phenomenon would be more correctly designated as electrodeposition from the gas phase. The practical aspects of the electrostatic precipitator were demonstrated in 1906 by F. G. Cottrell.
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