An improved intermittent power supply technique for electrostatic precipitators

Abstract A cost-effective power supply design proposed for electrostatic precipitators (ESP) is presented in this work. The cost minimization is done in terms of eliminating the power transformer and reducing power consumed by the ESP unit. Usually, transformers are used to boost the voltage level in conventional systems on its input side, which is replaced by a combination of a high-frequency converter along with a voltage multiplier in a modular arrangement. By interconnecting these modules, the suitable voltage is built-up easily. An intermittent pulse energized supply is developed by the proposed system to reduce back corona and to save energy consumption. The modular arrangement also increases the lifetime of converter switches, by reducing the switching stresses developed across them during its high-frequency operation and by reducing the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD). The complete system is designed and analyzed using MATLAB SIMULINK. The obtained results are better than the existing methods used for generating intermittent energization, the THD is reduced to 35.78% and the voltage stresses also reduced to 1800 V. And a module is experimented and found that it is capable of producing 3 kV.