Inertial-electrostatic wet precipitator

Claim 1

An inertial-electrostatic precipitator for extracting both coarse and fine particular contaminants from a gaseous stream to produce a decontaminated stream, said precipitator comprising: A a cylindrical collector tube mountable along an axis that may be tilted with respect to the vertical and provided with an upper inlet section and a lower outlet section; B a discharge electrode assembly coaxially disposed within said tube to establish an electrostatic field therein; C means to feed liquid into said collector tube including a liquid pump supplying liquid to a pipe having a plurality of convolutions coiled about said inlet section of the tube to impart rotational momentum to the pressurized liquid flowing therethrough, the pipe terminating in a nozzle positioned and arranged to eject the liquid tangentially into the inlet section at high velocity to impart cyclonic motion thereto causing the liquid to flow downwardly toward the outlet section against the inner surface of the tube in a helical path to form a liquid film thereon, the cyclonic motion creating centrifugal forces tending to hold said film against the inner surface even when the tube is tilted; D gas inlet means for delivering a gaseous stream into said collector tube including a horn-shaped diverging duct with a flattened mouth positioned and arranged to introduce said gaseous stream tangentially into the inlet section at high velocity to impart cyclonic motion to cause the gas to impinge on the liquid film and to impose a penumatic pressure thereon serving to maintain the film against said inner surface even when the tube is tilted, the centrifugal forces created by the cyclonic motion of the gas causing particles therein to migrate toward said film, which migration is further promoted by electrostatic forces produced by said field and ionizing said particles, E A blower coupled to the outlet section of the tube to draw the decontaminated stream from the tube and to discharge it into the atmosphere; and F an annular sump means disposed below the outlet section to receive the liquid discharged therefrom.