The Department of Environment Malaysia (DOE) has been regulating particulate
emission since the 1978. More stringent environmental regulations have resulted in
considerable research into ways of reducing harmful and gloomy particulate
emissions. Cyclones are probably the most commonly used means of separating dust
from gases, controlling pollution, collecting particulate product or recovering catalyst
particles from fluidised reactors. Their popularity is due to low maintenance and
investment costs. Cyclone design maybe simple but models use to predict the
cyclone efficiency and pressure drop are not always accurate. The objective of this
study is to carry out simulation via a commercial spreadsheet, MS EXCEL and CFD
code FLUENT 6.1, on cyclone design, efficiency, and pressure drop for particulate
emission control.
In this study, CFD code FLUENT and four cyclone collection models earlier
developed by other researchers are used for prediction of cyclone efficiency. This
study focuses on various operating conditions of cyclone and the simulation result is
then verified via experimental data published in the literature. The model with the
best prediction on experimental data is then used to evaluate the effects of cyclone
configuration, dimension, and variable on its collection efficiency.
The cyclone pressure drop calculations are performed using CFD and empirical
models adopted from the literature. These four empirical models and CFD are
compared with presented experimental data available in the literature.All the modelling and simulation of cyclone efficiency and pressure drop are proved
to be satisfactory when compared with the presented experimental data. The CFD
simulations and Li and Wang model predict excellently the cyclone cut-off size for
all operating conditions with a deviation of 3 and 6% from the experimental data
respectively. The CFD simulations also predict excellently the cyclone pressure drop
under different temperature and inlet velocity with a maximum deviation of 3% from
the experimental data. Specifically, results obtained from the computer modelling
exercise have demonstrated that CFD and Li and Wang model is a best method of
modelling cyclones collection efficiency and pressure drop.
The result or finding obtained from the research work can be used to develop a
cyclone with greater separation efficiency, which is capable of removing up to 99%
of PM5. This cyclone can then be used for particulate pollutant control from
industrial factory to the atmosphere
