Wet Dust

When applications have high humidity or high water content, baghouse and cartridge collector filters often have operational issues. The filters collect both dust and water droplets on the dirty side of the filter. Dust is then exposed to the water vapor passing through the dust layer as it moves to the clean side of the filter. The water vapor and water droplets will cause the dust to get wet. Many particulate physical properties change when wet. Some become like mud, while others become like concrete. These changes will prevent air from passing through the filters, thereby raising the pressure drop and dropping the airflow.

One simple option to solve this issue is the installation of a cyclone pre-filter. The cyclone pre-filter uses centrifugal motion to remove the largest and heaviest of the particles and water droplets. Often times the cyclone can remove 80-90% of the particles before they reach the filters. What this means is the loading (both solids and droplets) is decreased significantly. It allows the filters to operate longer (if not eliminating the issue).

The GPC and Dust Hound cyclone are compact dust collectors that are ideal as pre-filters for the baghouses and cartridge collectors. They provide high removal efficiency without adding water to the material (unlike wet scrubbers). While the SplitStream cyclone provides higher particle removal with the added benefit that you can use a hot/dry secondary airstream to dry the material before it goes to the filters.

Wet Dust