Electrostatic precipitator (ESP) is a major dust collection equipment in pulverized coal combustion boilers in Japan. Although the collection efficiency of ESP is over 99%, a performance of ESP is affected by dust properties, especially an electric resistivity of the dust. An advanced low temperature ESP operated under 373 K has been used recently because of its availability for high resistivity coal ash. But, in advanced low temperature ESP, the collection efficiency is low for some coals that generate extra high electric resistivity ash.
In this paper, to improve the collection efficiency of advanced low temperature ESP for high electric resistivity ash, the influence of moisture content in a combustion flue gas and operating temperature on performance of ESP is investigated.