Wet Electrostatic Precipitators to Reduce Urban Air Pollution

Urban pollution is now the biggest worldwide environmental risk to health. To improve air quality the existing solutions cannot be easily implemented in existing dense urban districts. The Urban Wet ElectroStatic Precipitator project is dedicated to the design and evaluation of a new urban air cleanup system based on two-stage wet electrostatic precipitation units. Each unit, which looks like a small footprint vertical rainwater downpipe, can be fixed on the external facade of buildings and thus can be deployable in such districts. Moreover those units can collect particles of a diameter down to 0.1μm and absorb gaseous compounds (as NOx or SO
₂
) while consuming little energy. In each unit, ionized polluted air flows downward in annular collecting chambers limited up and down by two helical ramps. This air gradually yields its particles and gaseous compounds to a co-current film flow which is released into sewers at the foot of buildings.