50 TECHNOLOGY AND PRODUCT NEWS
Solutions to Rehabilitation of Electrostatic Precipitator (ESP) in Biomass Industry M
ost of the biomass power plants in the southern part of Thailand employ palm kernel shell and empty fruit bunch (EFB) as fuel for their power boiler due to its abundancy in this tropical country and very low cost. Nevertheless, one major drawback of such kind of biomass fuel is high moisture content. High moisture content together with high frequency of rain make it difficult for biomass power plants to provide dry fuel for their power boiler. This issue causes lower heating value in the power boiler and flue gas with higher moisture entering the Electrostatic Precipitator (ESP).
operate since the remaining two fields were malfunctioned because of internal mechanical problem. The only one field operating obviously could not handle all the dust load in the flue gas from the power boiler and so the plant faced a very high emission and opacity that could easily be observed from the black smoke coming out of the stack.
Case Study: A biomass power plant located in Suratthani, Thailand This biomass power plant in the southern part of Thailand experienced a major issue of high moisture flue gas that accelerates corrosion on ESP internal mechanical parts. Deterioration of ESP internal parts leads to decrease in dust collection efficiency and underperformance of the ESP, and thus resulting in high emission.There are 3 fields in this onechambered Indian-made ESP, but only one field was able to
ASIA PALM OIL MAGAZINE | Oct-Dec 2021
Black smoke coming out of the stack indicating high emission and opacity
