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Research Project: GINNING AND PROCESSING RESEARCH TO ENHANCE QUALITY, PROFITABILITY, AND TEXTILE UTILITY OF WESTERN COTTONS

Location: Cotton Ginning Research

Title: MULTIPLE SERIES CYCLONES FOR HIGH PARTICULATE MATTER CONCENTRATIONS

Authors
item Whitelock, Derek
item Buser, Michael

Submitted to: Applied Engineering in Agriculture
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: November 3, 2006
Publication Date: March 15, 2007
Citation: Whitelock, D.P., Buser, M.D. 2007. Multiple series cyclones for high particulate matter concentrations. Applied Engineering in Agriculture. 23(2):131-136.

Interpretive Summary: Particulate emissions regulations on agricultural operations and processing facilities are becoming more and more stringent. Cyclones are commonly used in the processing industry as primary dust emissions abatement devices. A study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of adding one, two, or three high efficiency cyclones in series with the primary cyclone on reducing emissions for dust-laden air streams. Overall dust collection efficiency ranged from 91% to 98%. A single cyclone was significantly less efficient than series cyclone configurations. Succeeding cyclones in the series configurations captured less and smaller particles, and succeeding cyclones emitted dust containing smaller particles. A secondary cyclone increased overall efficiency significantly with an insignificant rise in required power, while additional cyclones raised efficiency only slightly and required significantly more power to operate. The research will add to the scientific literature and provide information about additional dust abatement options for agricultural operations.

Technical Abstract: Cyclones are commonly used in the processing industry as primary particulate emissions abatement devices. A study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of one, two, three, or four 1D3D cyclones, in series, on airstreams heavily loaded (236 g/m3) with fine particulate (mass median diameter <10 µm). The overall efficiency of a single cyclone (91%) was significantly lower than that of the series cyclone configurations (98%). Also, a single cyclone was consistently less efficient (91%) and had a higher static pressure loss (1356 Pa[5.4 in. w.g.]) than the No. 1 cyclone in the series configurations (94% efficiency and 881 Pa [3.5 in. w.g.] static pressure loss). Particle size distributions showed that there was a significant shift toward smaller sized particles in dust captured by the cyclones (8.78 to 1.86 µm) and the dust emitted by the cyclones (3.23 to 1.52 µm) as the number of series cyclones increased from one to four. A secondary cyclone increased overall efficiency significantly with an insignificant rise in static pressure loss, while additional cyclones raised efficiency only about 1% more and increased pressure losses by 150%.

   

 
Project Team
Hughs, Sidney - Hughs Ed
Whitelock, Derek
Armijo, Carlos
Baker, Kevin
Funk, Paul
 
Publications
   Publications
 
Related National Programs
  Air Quality (203)
  Quality and Utilization of Agricultural Products (306)
 
 
Last Modified: 05/25/2013
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