Successful Commercialization of Dust Collector Reducing Fine Dust to One-Tenth

Korea Institute of Energy Research Commercializes Long Bag Filter Dust Collector After Testing at POSCO Gwangyang Steelworks

The long bag filter dust collector developed by the Korea Institute of Energy Research, installed at POSCO Gwangyang Steelworks, and successfully commercialized through testing. Photo by Korea Institute of Energy Research

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] Amid severe fine dust pollution from domestic and international sources, a domestic research team has attracted attention by successfully commercializing a dust collection technology that reduces the existing fine dust emission concentration to one-tenth of the current level.

On the 26th, according to the Korea Institute of Energy Research, Dr. Park Hyun-seol and the research team of the Fine Dust Research Group developed a ‘high-performance low-cost bag filter dust collector’ that can reduce fine dust emission concentration to one-tenth while drastically cutting facility costs and installation area, and successfully completed demonstration operation at POSCO Gwangyang Steelworks.

The bag filter dust collector, which applies a cylindrical long-handle filter, occupies more than 80% of the entire dust collector market, and its demand is increasing as dust emission concentration and work environment regulations are strengthened. However, many industrial complexes densely populated with dust-emitting companies are over 20 years old and have saturated environmental facilities, making space for installing new dust collectors to meet strengthened dust emission regulations very limited.

In Korea, the replacement period for dust collection devices applied to medium and large dust collector demand industries such as power generation, steel, and cement is approaching, creating a need for the development and dissemination of dust collectors that guarantee high dust collection performance, low facility costs, and operating costs.

The research team developed a technology that injects compressed air to clean (periodically remove dust from the filter surface) while allowing clean gas passing through the filter to flow inside the bag filter. This innovation drastically reduced dust emission concentration compared to existing methods while simultaneously reducing dust collector facility costs and installation area. In particular, they adopted a method where, during filter regeneration, a portion of the filtered clean air flows in the opposite direction to the filtration direction while compressed air is injected for cleaning, and filtration is restarted at set intervals.

As a result, since a reverse flow is formed inside the filter before the injection of compressed air for cleaning, effective filter regeneration is possible even at low air pressure. Also, because the dust removed during cleaning is completely eliminated inside the dust collector before filtration restarts, the amount of fine dust emissions is significantly reduced.

Filter regeneration efficiency improved more than twice compared to existing technologies, extending filter lifespan, and it became possible to apply bag filters 10 to 15 meters in length, which were difficult to clean with previous filter regeneration technologies. Therefore, the installation area of the dust collector can be reduced by more than 50% compared to the conditions applying 5-meter bag filters. Additionally, while lowering facility costs, the dust concentration emitted through chimneys can be reduced to less than one-tenth of the existing level.

This complex regeneration bag filter dust collection technology was transferred to Hanbit Power Co., Ltd. in December 2017 and was commercialized through a multi-ministerial national strategic project’s dust reduction demonstration project from 2017 to May 2020.

The complex regeneration bag filter dust collector applied in the demonstration project is a full-scale dust collection facility with a treated gas flow rate of 200,000㎥/hr, equipped with a 15-meter bag filter, and was installed at POSCO Gwangyang Steelworks, where its performance was verified through long-term continuous operation.

According to measurements of dust emission concentration conducted by the Korea Testing Laboratory, an accredited testing institution, the total dust concentration was confirmed to be 0.188 mg/m3, which is less than one-tenth of the strictest emission allowance standard currently applied in Korea for new coal-fired power plants (5.0 mg/m3).

Kim Jong-nam, President of the Korea Institute of Energy Research, said, “With the completion of commercialization through demonstration of this technology, we have secured a technical means to drastically reduce dust emissions in domestic industries,” adding, “We hope this technology will be rapidly disseminated to various workplaces in the future and greatly contribute to solving Korea’s fine dust problem.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.