EFFECTIVENESS OF A HIGH-PRESSURE WATER-FOGGING SYSTEM IN CONTROLLING DUST EMISSIONS AT GRAIN RECEIVING

摘要

Grain dust at the receiving area is afire hazard, a health concern, and a sanitation problem and should be controlled. The effectiveness of a high-pressure water-fogging system in controlling grain dust emissions was evaluated with corn and wheat while spouting 2.1 m{sup}3 (60 bu) of grain into a test chamber. Dust/fog emissions and deposits along with entrained airflows were measured for four fog treatments, a control, and an air-blower treatment at each of two grain flow rates. The uncontrolled dust emissions varied with grain type and grain flow rate. Water - fog sprays, when applied across the top of the test chamber, redirected the airflow downstream of the spray nozzles and reduced dust emissions significantly. Dust reductions ranged from 60% to 84% for corn and from 35% to 73% for wheat. However, the sprays produced significant fog emissions and deposits in proportion to the liquid supply. At the highest spray rate (855 g/min), fog emission was 32 g/min (3.8%), and fog deposits ranged from 1.4 to 7.1 mg/cm{sup}2/min.