ELECTROSTATICS IN GAS CLEANING - CONTRIBUTIONS OF MELCHER,JAMES,R

Equipment, employing electrostatic processes, has been used in the abatement of particulate and gaseous contaminants for nearly a century. The late Professor Melcher, with his students, brought new light to the fundamental processes governing the performance of this gas cleaning equipment. They developed methods based on ''characteristic times'' to describe the integrated performance of air pollution control systems and, through studies into electrohydrodynamic phenomena, advanced the development of several new filters: the electrofluidized bed, the AC precipitator-agglomerator, and the charged droplet scrubber.