Frequency comparative study of coal-fired fly ash acoustic agglomeration

Particulate pollution is main kind of atmospheric pollution.The fine particles are seriously harmful to human health and environment.Acoustic agglomeration is considered as a promising pretreatment technology for fine particle agglomeration.The mechanisms of acoustic agglomeration are very complex and the agglomeration efficiency is affected by many factors.The most important and controversial factor is frequency.Comparative studies between high-frequency and low-frequency sound source to agglomerate coal- fired fly ash were carried out to investigate the influence of frequency on agglomeration efficiency.Acoustic agglomeration theoretical analysis,experimental particle size distributions （PSDs） and orthogonal design were examined.The results showed that the 20 kHz high-frequency sound source was not suitable to agglomerate coal-fired fly ash.Only within the size ranging from 0.2 to 0.25 μm the particles agglomerated to adhere together,and the agglomerated particles were smaller than 2.5 μm.The application of low-frequency （1000–1800 Hz） sound source was proved as an advisable pretreatment with the highest agglomeration efficiency of 75.3%,and all the number concentrations within the measuring range decreased.Orthogonal design L16 （4） 3 was introduced to determine the optimum frequency and optimize acoustic agglomeration condition.According to the results of orthogonal analysis,frequency was the dominant factor of coal-fired fly ash acoustic agglomeration and the optimum frequency was 1400 Hz.

Experimental Research on Enhanced Cyclone Separation of Acoustic Agglomerated Particles

To test the particles solidity and to verify the separating efficiency at normal atmospheric temperature, the experimental research was made on the enhanced cyclone separation of acoustic agglomerated fly ash particles. The separating efficiency has increased by 3%-4% in a sound field with 150 dB pressure level compared with that obtained without acoustic wave processing. The enhanced cyclone separation test study for acoustic agglomerated particles has provided a technical basis for pressurized fluid bed combustion(PFBC) application.

Study on aerosol agglomeration using the airborne ultrasonic transducer

Acoustic agglomeration technology use high-intensity acoustic field to make aerosol particles collide and condense rapidly. Existing studies have shown that 70%–90% of fine particles can be eliminated within minutes using compression drives and air-jet generators. Currently, there are limitations to the sound sources used. In this paper, an airborne ultrasonic transducer with a resonant frequency of 15 kHz is designed, followed by the corresponding numerical simulation and experiments for the evaluation of the vibration modal and sound pressure field. The sound pressure levels (SPL) of the open space and the agglomeration chamber can reach 150 dB and 156 dB, respectively. The agglomeration effect of water droplets, liquid phase smoke, solid phase smoke and mixed smoke is experimentally investigated, and the light transmittance rapidly increases from 8% to 60% within 4 s, 8 s, 5 s and 6 s, respectively. Agglomeration is also effective in the high-frequency range, and we infer that the acoustic wake effect is the predominant mechanism. The elimination effect is promoted with the increasing of SPL until the corresponding secondary acoustic effect is enhanced. Moreover, the agglomeration rate of higher concentration aerosol is significantly better than that of diluted aerosols in ultrasonic agglomeration process.