Thermal power plants (coal-fired power plants) use coal as their fuel. To handle the coal, each power station is equipped with a coal handling plant. The coal has to be sized, processed, and handled which should be done effectively and efficiently. The major factor which reduces the staff efficiency in operation of coal handling plant is the working environment i.e. a dusty atmosphere and condition. Lots of care is always needed to reduce dust emission. In developing countries, all most all systems used in power station coal handling plants are wet dust suppression systems.
(a) Dust collection system - Dust collection systems use ventilation principles to capture the dust-filled air-stream and carry it away from the source through ductwork to the collector. A typical dust collection system consists of four major components, such as (1) An exhaust hood to capture dust emissions at the source; (2) Ductwork to transport the captured dust to a dust collector; (3) A dust collector to remove the dust from the air; (4) A fan and motor to provide the necessary exhaust volume and energy.
(b) Wet dust suppression system - Wet dust suppression techniques use water sprays to wet the material so that it generates less dust. There are two different types of wet dust suppressions: (i) wets the dust before it is airborne (surface wetting) and (ii) wets the dust after it becomes airborne. In many cases surfactants or chemical foams are often added to the water into these systems in order to improve performance. A water spray with surfactant means that a surfactant has been added to the water in order to lower the surface tension of the water droplets and allow these droplets to spread further over the material and also to allow deeper penetration into the material.
i. Surface wetting system: The principle behind surface wetting is the idea that dust will not even be given a chance to form and become airborne. With this method, effective wetting of the material can take place by static spreading (wetting material while it is stationary) and dynamic spreading (wetting material while it is moving). For static wetting, more effective dust suppression arises by increasing the surface coverage by either reducing the droplet diameter or its contact angle. For dynamic spreading, more factors come into play such as the surface tension of the liquid, the droplet diameter, the size of the material being suppressed, and the droplet impact velocity.
ii. Airborne dust capture system - Airborne dust capture systems may also use a water-spray technique; however, airborne dust particles are sprayed with atomized water. When the dust particles collide with the water droplets, agglomerates are formed. These agglomerates become too heavy to remain airborne and settle. Airborne dust wet suppression systems work on the principle of spraying very small water droplets into airborne dust. When the small droplets collide with the airborne dust particles, they stick to each other and fall out of the air to the ground. This collision between the particles occurs due to three factors involving both the water and the dust particles. As a dust particle and water particle approach each other, the airflow could move the particle around the droplet, have a direct hit on the droplet, or barely graze the droplet. It is this factor that leads us to the second factor, which is that droplets and particles that are of similar sizes have the best chance of a collision. If a droplet is smaller than the dust particle or vice versa, then they may never collide and instead just be swept around each other. The last factor is the dependence of an electrostatic force on a droplet and how the path is affected by this force. Just like with magnets, similarly charged particles repel each others. Thus it is advantageous to have the particles either both neutrally charged (so that they neither repel nor attract one another) or oppositely charged (so that they attract one another) in order to increase the likelihood of a water and particle collision.