CHARACTERIZATION OF THERMAL PRECIPITATOR IN SMOKE COLLECTOR BY USING PARTICLE COUNTER

Abstract

Air pollution in major cities in many countries has reaching a very concerning level. One of the
cause of air pollution is pollution caused by smoke aerosol. Smoke aerosols that has an average
particle diameter of 0.1 μm – 1 μm can be found in cigarette smoke, diesel vehicle fume, industrial
fume and many else. This condition will be worsen by the increase in the number of smokers, motor
vehicles and industry. Therefore we need to pursue the control method for that kind of air pollution.
In the literature study, it’s found that the cleaning method of air fi ltration for fi ne particle with
dimension of 0.01 – 5 μm are by using thermal precipitator. Thermal precipitator is one method of
air fi ltration based on thermophoretic force, which is if there is a temperature difference between
two plates, it will cause the force that will push the particles between the two plates toward the
plate that has lower temperature. In the effort to help control and reduce the air pollution, for this
study we made a thermal precipitator test equipment to deposit the particles in the air with the use
of thermophoretic force. That force is the force applied to the particles that suspended in the fl uid
fl ow. The temperature difference between two plates is set at ΔT=5, 10, 15, and 20oC. This study
utilized gas sensors to observe the characterization of thermal precipitator. From the experiment
and analysis can be concluded that thermal precipitator can be applied as a smoke collector.