Patent Application
20220288552
The present disclosure relates to non-thermal plasma systems and, more particularly, relates to a compound annular non-thermal plasma reactor core that is particularly well adapted for destruction of chemical contaminants and/or inactivation of biological pathogens present in flowing liquids or gases.
This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art. This section provides a general summary of the disclosure, and is not a comprehensive disclosure of its full scope of all of its features.
Increasing public concern over disease outbreaks has heightened the public's interest in how infectious agents are transmitted and what health-protective measures can be used against transmission. That is, chemical contaminants and biological pathogens in air likely raise the level of public concern because they are unseen, thereby increasing public concern when health impacts are severe or when sources are diffuse, unidentifiable, and/or uncontrolled. Approximately 75% of acute illnesses in the developed world are respiratory, and nearly 80% of these illnesses are caused by viruses that are often transmitted in indoor environments. A stark example of disease transmission within indoor environments is the 2003 SARS coronavirus outbreak when fecal matter-contaminated aerosols conveyed through the ventilation system were found to be responsible for a large cluster of SARS infections concentrated in the Amoy Gardens high-rise apartment block in Hong Kong. Indoor air quality will continue to increase in importance as global populations continue to grow, city populations continue to swell from rural-to-urban migration patterns, and residential and commercial building occupant densities continue to rise as a result.
However, centralized heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems are often carefully engineered to compensate for constrictions in the ductwork and obstructions to the air flow. The associated backpressure can require larger air handling systems and motors, thereby increasing the size, energy use, and cost of such HVAC systems. Also, modern centralized HVAC systems recirculate the majority of air that undergoes conditioning with minimal outdoor or fresh air addition. As a result, chemical or biological contaminants released in one indoor space could be transported to another indoor space, the two being connected by the HVAC system.
According to the principles of the present teachings, prevention of the transmission of infective viruses and bacteria through centralized HVAC systems without need for a particulate filter is provided, thereby preventing contamination of indoor environments by external biological agents or transmission of contamination between indoor spaces connected by the building HVAC system. Moreover, according to the principles of the present teachings, such prevention of the transmission of infective viruses and bacteria can be achieved without the associated backpressure experienced in other systems and while maintaining a compact size.
In some embodiments, the present teachings employ one or more electrodes that induce electrical discharges and/or impose an electric field that concurrently charge, remove, and/or render non-infective otherwise infectious aerosols from the air stream. That is, the present teachings, in some embodiments, employ one or more electrodes that induce electrical discharges that initiate a plasma that destroys chemical contaminants and/or inactivates and/or renders non-infective biological pathogens within an air stream. The present teachings further provide a non-thermal plasma system that improves the efficiency of operation of the plasma without the conventional disadvantage of flow restriction. This provides the potential for use in central HVAC systems, or miniaturization into portable or wearable systems, without the energy penalty associated with particulate filters and avoiding a substantial pressure differential across the particulate filters.
The present teachings may find utility in a wide variety of applications, including but not limited to HVAC systems, sterile room contaminant control, aircraft and spacecraft cabin environmental control, human and animal bio-security, confined animal operations, personal air cleaner systems, and the like. The present teachings achieve many benefits, including but not limited to being filterless, reduced size and operating costs compared to particulate filters, being tunable, and the ability to achieve EPA recommendations not achievable by today's technology.
Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the description provided herein. The description and specific examples in this summary are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
The drawings described herein are for illustrative purposes only of selected embodiments and not all possible implementations, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
Corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.
Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Example embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough, and will fully convey the scope to those who are skilled in the art. Numerous specific details are set forth such as examples of specific components, devices, and methods, to provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the present disclosure. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that specific details need not be employed, that example embodiments may be embodied in many different forms and that neither should be construed to limit the scope of the disclosure. In some example embodiments, well-known processes, well-known device structures, and well-known technologies are not described in detail.
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular example embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. As used herein, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” may be intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. The terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “including,” and “having,” are inclusive and therefore specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. The method steps, processes, and operations described herein are not to be construed as necessarily requiring their performance in the particular order discussed or illustrated, unless specifically identified as an order of performance. It is also to be understood that additional or alternative steps may be employed.
When an element or layer is referred to as being “on,” “engaged to,” “connected to,” or “coupled to” another element or layer, it may be directly on, engaged, connected or coupled to the other element or layer, or intervening elements or layers may be present. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being “directly on,” “directly engaged to,” “directly connected to,” or “directly coupled to” another element or layer, there may be no intervening elements or layers present. Other words used to describe the relationship between elements should be interpreted in a like fashion (e.g., “between” versus “directly between,” “adjacent” versus “directly adjacent,” etc.). As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the associated listed items.
Although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms may be only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer or section from another region, layer or section. Terms such as “first,” “second,” and other numerical terms when used herein do not imply a sequence or order unless clearly indicated by the context. Thus, a first element, component, region, layer or section discussed below could be termed a second element, component, region, layer or section without departing from the teachings of the example embodiments.
Spatially relative terms, such as “inner,” “outer,” “beneath,” “below,” “lower,” “above,” “upper,” and the like, may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. Spatially relative terms may be intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, elements described as “below” or “beneath” other elements or features would then be oriented “above” the other elements or features. Thus, the example term “below” can encompass both an orientation of above and below. The device may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly.
According to the principles of the present teachings, as illustrated in the accompanying figures, a non-thermal plasma (NTP) reactor system 10 is provided for exposing an airflow within a nested passage assembly 12 to a non-thermal plasma. More particularly, in some embodiments, the nested passage assembly 12 of the non-thermal plasma (NTP) reactor system 10 can comprise an outer member 14 and an inner member 16 nested within the outer member 14. Accordingly, inner member 16 can have a smaller cross-sectional area compared to the outer member 14 to permit the outer member 14 to fully contain the inner member 16 along a longitudinal direction. In some embodiments, the outer member 14 and the inner member 16 can each be cylindrically shaped and arranged in a coaxial relationship. However, it should be understood that the principles of the present teachings are equally applicable to configurations wherein outer member 14 and inner member 16 have similar and/or dissimilar cross-sectional shapes. That is, by way of non-limiting example, outer member 14 and inner member 16 can each define a similar cross-sectional shape, such as an oval, oblong, square, rectangular, or any other conducive cross-sectional shape. Likewise, outer member 14 and inner member 16 can each define dissimilar cross-sectional shapes or profiles to facilitate airflow and exposure to the non-thermal plasma as described herein.
Accordingly, in some embodiments, outer member 14 and inner member 16 can define a cylindrical shape such that inner member 16 has a radius or diameter that is less than a radius or diameter of outer member 14, such that an annular volume 18 exists between outer member 14 and inner member 16. In this arrangement, inner member 16 can be nested within outer member 14 such that outer member 14 completely encompasses inner member 16 from a cross-sectional perspective. In some embodiments, inner member 16 can be coaxial with outer member 14 such that annular volume 18 is equidistant and/or equally-sized radially between outer member 14 and inner member 16.
In some embodiments, as illustrated in
With continued reference to
It should be understood that as the annular distance of annular volume 18 of the embodiment of
However, in applications where it is desired to improve non-thermal plasma performance without inadvertently causing airflow restrictions and thereby requiring additional flow length, some embodiments as illustrated in
Inner surface boundary 42 and outer surface boundary 44 of inner member sleeve 40 are each permeable to permit air to flow from annular volume 18 to a central core volume 50 within inner member sleeve 40. In this embodiment, the airflow flows both axially and radially—that is, the air flows in a direction that is parallel to the longitudinal axis of outer member 14 and/or inner member sleeve 40 (i.e. axial) and will also flow in a radial direction as it passes from annular volume 18 to the central core volume 50. However, it should be understood that air can flow in an opposite direction from central core volume 50 to annular volume 18; however, this is also considered to be both axial and radial flows.
Permeability of inner surface boundary 42 and outer surface boundary 44 can be achieved according to any number of solutions providing a permeable feature 58. In some embodiments, permeable feature 58 can comprise a plurality of through-holes 52 formed in inner surface boundary 42 and outer surface boundary 44. Likewise, permeable feature 58 can comprise slots, material porosity, or other features that can be used to permit flow of air there through, thereby producing permeability.
With continued reference to
In some embodiments, as illustrated in
As airflow passes between annular volume 18 and central core volume 50, the airflow is exposed to the non-thermal plasma within sleeve volume 46 according to the principles of the present teachings.
In this way, the distance between rod electrode 54 and electrode layer 62 of chamber wall 49 can be decreased to promote operation of the non-thermal plasmas within sleeve volume 46 without substantially effecting or increasing airflow resistance within annular volume 18 and/or central core volume 50. Moreover, the non-thermal plasma can be used to effectively and efficiently destroy chemical contaminants and/or inactivate and/or render non-infective biological pathogens within the airflow.
In some embodiments, a longitudinal length of outer member 14 and inner member 16 (or inner member sleeve 40) can be different from each other. For example, in some embodiments as illustrated in
As should be appreciated from
It should be understood that alternative configurations are envisioned, including, but not limited to, employing a dielectric coating upon inner member 16 and/or outer member 14 to facilitate production of the plasma without the use of dielectric beads and/or an inner member sleeve 40.
The foregoing description of the embodiments has been provided for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure. Individual elements or features of a particular embodiment are generally not limited to that particular embodiment, but, where applicable, are interchangeable and can be used in a selected embodiment, even if not specifically shown or described. The same may also be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the disclosure, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the disclosure.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/889,732, filed on Aug. 21, 2019. The entire disclosure of the above application is incorporated herein by reference.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/US2020/047295 | 8/21/2020 | WO |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62889732 | Aug 2019 | US |
