Charging of coal powder particles in dense phase pneumatic conveying system at low pressure

A non-contact measurement method, namely an electrostatic probe, for particle charging characteristics determination is introduced in the paper. Using the probe, the charging trends of the pulverized bituminous coal in a dense phase pneumatic conveying system at low pressure were investigated for gas superficial velocities in a range of 6-10 m/s and particle concentrations in a range of 128-230 kg/m³. The observations indicated that increasing the coal particles concentration leads to an increase in charge level of the pulverized coal particles and then a decrease, and a peak of the charge level is experienced in the range of 150-160 kg/m³. The charges carried by the coal particles increase with the increase of gas superficial velocity in the pipeline, and then reach saturation values.