Abstract

An industrial-scale pulse corona process to remove SO₂ and NOx simultaneously from flue gas has been studied. The pilot plant built in the present study treated 2,000 Nm³/hr of flue gas from a boiler. The geometry of the pulse corona reactor is similar to that of an electrostatic precipitator commonly used in industry. A thyratron switch and magnetic pulse compressors, which can generate up to 130 kV of peak pulse voltage and up to 30 kW of average pulse power, have been used to produce the pulsed corona. The removal efficiencies of SO₂ and NOx with the present process are maximum of 95 % and 85 %, respectively. Electrical power consumption to produce pulse corona, which has been one of the major difficulties to apply this process to industry, has been evaluated in the present study. The results showed that the power consumption can be reduced significantly by simultaneous addition of hydrocarbon injection and heterogeneous phase reactions to the process.