Corona discharge ion sources for fine particle charging

Charging of aerosol droplets and solid particles is applied in many industrial processes such as electrostatic painting, particle separation and electrostatic precipitation. In most of charging devices, electrical discharges are used as a source of ions, which are deposited onto the particles. In the present paper, the charging process by ionic current in alternating electric field was optimized experimentally. Alternating electric field charger was used as a charging device in these experiments. The current voltage characteristics of electrical discharge in this device, and the charge imparted to the particles were determined. The level of charge was measured at the outlet of the charger and was compared to the Pauthenier limit for different supply voltages, and frequencies. MgO powder was used as a source of particles in these experiments. It was noticed that higher supply voltage of the charger gives higher level of particle charge, but at the same time, the particle deposition on the charger elements was increased, decreasing the particle penetration. A compromise between these two tendencies is therefore necessary. As a result we have proposed a criterion maximizing the total charge born by the particles which is a product of relative particle charge and particle penetration.