Parameter study and optimization on filtration and resistance characteristics of granular bed filter

In this paper, experimental studies were carried out to investigate the filtration and resistance characteristics of a fixed granular bed filter (GBF) during the process of dust particles removal for hot industrial flue gas. The effects of geometric and operating parameters (including filtration superficial velocity, granules size, bed height, dust particles concentration and flue gas temperature) were examined according to the orthogonal array design method. The experimental results show that the filtration superficial velocity has the most significant effect on filtration efficiency, which is followed by granules size, bed height, flue gas temperature and dust particles concentration respectively; for pressure drop, the order of the factors are granules size, filtration superficial velocity, bed height, flue gas temperature and dust particles concentration respectively. Based on the experimental results, correlations of filtration efficiency and pressure drop with these parameters were established, which have good prediction accuracy with most of the deviations within 15%. The optimized parameters combinations of the maximum filtration efficiency and the minimum pressure drop of the GBF were gained which agree well with the experimental results. The correlations are significant for design and evaluation of GBF in practical applications.