Experimental and numerical investigation on the separation of hydrophilic fine particles using heterogeneous condensation preconditioning technique in gas cyclones

Improving the removal efficiency of gas cyclones becomes critical as air pollution aggravates. This study aims to investigate the effects of operating parameters on the process of heterogeneous condensation and separation performance of gas cyclones. For hydrophilic fine particles, an experimental apparatus was built up to analyze the heat transfer and removal efficiency. Then a two- way coupling numerical model in which the interactions between particles and gas was achieved by user defined function was adopted. Compared with experimental and numerical results, the accuracy of simulation satisfied engineering application. In addition, as the initial supersaturation degree S0 increases, the particle size at growth chamber outlet and removal efficiency increase by 69.89%, 107.01% respectively. While increasing the gas flow rate F decreases particle size by 3.59% and increases removal efficiency by 17.91%. By heterogeneous condensation preconditioning technique, the removal efficiency for fine particles can reach 95.12%. These results can help optimize and apply this preconditioning technique of gas cyclones in engineering.