BACKGROUND: The reduction of sulfuric acid aerosol emissions in coal fired power plant is of great importance. Based on the classical theory of heterogeneous vapor condensation, a novel engineering process was proposed to increase the efficiency of removal of sulfuric acid aerosols by adding moist air in the condensational growth chamber (CGC), following the desulfurization scrubber. RESULTS: The theoretical analysis showed that this novel process was feasible. The experimental results indicated that the efficiency of removal of sulfuric acid aerosols was mainly influenced by the amount of moist air added and the humiture of desulfurized flue gas and moist air. Higher humiture of desulfurized flue gas could promote removal efficiency, whereas higher temperature of moist air was unfavorable. However, the influence of the relative humidity of moist air was not obvious. Moreover, increasing the mixture ratio was also beneficial for the improvement of removal performance in the range below 10:20. CONCLUSION: The process proposed was feasible for industrial application. The efficiency of removal of sulfuric acid aerosols was enhanced to 30-50% by this novel process. (C) 2016 Society of Chemical Industry