Claims
- 1. An air cleaning apparatus, comprising:
a chamber into which a flow of input air is directed, said input air containing a plurality of particles, said input air becoming a flow of output air after being cleaned within said chamber; at least one nozzle through which a liquid is sprayed into said chamber, said liquid being electrically charged, said liquid becoming separated into a plurality of droplets upon exiting said at least one nozzle; and said chamber being configured to cause said flow of input air and said charged liquid droplets to intermix at an intermix space, wherein said plurality of particles are attracted to said charged liquid droplets, thereby removing a portion of said plurality of particles from said input air, which thus becomes said flow of output air; wherein, when said flow of input air passes through said intermix space of said chamber at an air velocity of substantially 2.54 meters per second (500 fpm), said plurality of particles at substantially 0.3 microns in size is cleaned from said input air at a cleaning efficiency of greater than 70%, at a backpressure of less than 0.2 inches of water column, and without substantial change to a temperature and humidity of said input air.
- 2. The air cleaning apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein, without cleaning or changing any component of said air cleaning apparatus, after 60 days of substantially continuous use the cleaning efficiency characteristic decreases less than 10% and the backpressure characteristic increases less than 10%, when said flow of input air exhibits a particle density greater than one million particles per cubic meter.
- 3. The air cleaning apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein after they receive particles from said flow of input air, said liquid droplets are accumulated into a body of liquid, which is recirculated back to said at least one nozzle, and a surface of said liquid droplets is effectively renewed for each cycle of electrical charging, thereby allowing said liquid to be used over an extended time period of at least 4 months before becoming sufficiently dirty such that its surface will not take a sufficient electrical charge to attract said particles at a desired cleaning efficiency.
- 4. The air cleaning apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein said liquid exhibits a conductivity of less than 10−4 ohm−1 m−1.
- 5. The air cleaning apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein said liquid exhibits a relaxation time of greater than 0.1 seconds.
- 6. An air cleaning apparatus, comprising:
a chamber into which a flow of input air is directed, said input air containing a plurality of particles, said input air becoming a flow of output air after being cleaned within said chamber; at least one nozzle through which a liquid is sprayed into said chamber, said liquid being electrically charged, said liquid becoming separated into a plurality of droplets upon exiting said at least one nozzle; and said chamber being configured to cause said flow of input air and said charged liquid droplets to intermix at an intermix space, wherein said plurality of particles are attracted to said charged liquid droplets, thereby removing a portion of said plurality of particles from said input air, which thus becomes said flow of output air; wherein, when said flow of input air passes through said intermix space of said chamber at an air velocity of substantially 2.54 meters per second (500 fpm), said plurality of particles according to the ASHRAE dust spot test is cleaned from said input air at a cleaning efficiency of greater than 85%, at a backpressure of less than 0.1 inches of water column, and without substantial change to a temperature and humidity of said input air.
- 7. The air cleaning apparatus as recited in claim 6, wherein after they receive particles from said flow of input air, said liquid droplets are accumulated into a body of liquid, which is recirculated back to said at least one nozzle, and a surface of said liquid droplets is effectively renewed for each cycle of electrical charging, thereby allowing said liquid to be used over an extended time period of at least 4 months before becoming sufficiently dirty such that its surface will not take a sufficient electrical charge to attract said particles at a desired cleaning efficiency.
- 8. The air cleaning apparatus as recited in claim 6, wherein said liquid exhibits a conductivity of less than 10−4 ohm−1 m−1.
- 9. The air cleaning apparatus as recited in claim 6, wherein said liquid exhibits a relaxation time of greater than 0.1 seconds.
- 10. An air cleaning apparatus, comprising:
a chamber into which a flow of input air is directed, said input air containing a plurality of particles, said input air becoming a flow of output air after being cleaned within said chamber; at least one nozzle through which a liquid is sprayed into said chamber, said liquid being electrically charged, said liquid becoming separated into a plurality of droplets upon exiting said at least one nozzle; and said chamber being configured to cause said flow of input air and said charged liquid droplets to intermix at an intermix space, wherein said plurality of particles are attracted to said charged liquid droplets, thereby removing a portion of said plurality of particles from said input air, which thus becomes said flow of output air; wherein, when said flow of input air passes through said intermix space of said chamber at an air velocity of substantially 0.4572 meters per second (90 fpm), said plurality of particles at substantially 0.3 microns in size is cleaned from said input air at a cleaning efficiency of substantially 99.97%, at a backpressure of less than 0.8 inches of water column, and without substantial change to a temperature and humidity of said input air.
- 11. The air cleaning apparatus as recited in claim 10, wherein said backpressure is less than 0.2 inches of water column.
- 12. The air cleaning apparatus as recited in claim 10, wherein, without cleaning or changing any component of said air cleaning apparatus, after 60 days of substantially continuous use the cleaning efficiency characteristic decreases less than 10% and the backpressure characteristic increases less than 10%, when said flow of input air exhibits a particle density greater than one million particles per cubic meter.
- 13. The air cleaning apparatus as recited in claim 10, wherein after they receive particles from said flow of input air, said liquid droplets are accumulated into a body of liquid, which is recirculated back to said at least one nozzle, and a surface of said liquid droplets is effectively renewed for each cycle of electrical charging, thereby allowing said liquid to be used over an extended time period of at least 4 months before becoming sufficiently dirty such that its surface will not take a sufficient electrical charge to attract said particles at a desired cleaning efficiency.
- 14. The air cleaning apparatus as recited in claim 10, wherein said liquid exhibits a conductivity of less than 10−4 ohm−1 m−1.
- 15. The air cleaning apparatus as recited in claim 10, wherein said liquid exhibits a relaxation time of greater than 0.1 seconds.
- 16. A single-pass air cleaning apparatus, comprising:
a chamber into which a flow of input air is directed, said input air containing a plurality of particles, said input air becoming a flow of output air after being cleaned within said chamber; at least one nozzle through which a plurality of small solid objects are sprayed into said chamber, said solid objects being electrically charged; and said chamber being configured to cause said flow of input air and said charged solid objects to intermix at an intermix space, wherein said plurality of particles are attracted to said charged solid objects, thereby removing a portion of said plurality of particles from said input air, which thus becomes said flow of output air; wherein, when said flow of input air passes through said intermix space of said chamber, a very large portion of said particles exhibiting a sub-micron size are cleaned from said input air without substantial change to a temperature and humidity of said input air, and wherein said solid objects are not recirculated.
- 17. The single-pass air cleaning apparatus as recited in claim 16, wherein said particles include biohazardous materials, and said non-recirculated solid objects are stored in a biohazard-safe container after being sent through said intermix space.
- 18. The single-pass air cleaning apparatus as recited in claim 16, wherein a sufficient number of said solid objects are provided at a sufficiently fast rate to effectively clean virtually all of said particles of interest from a predetermined space after said air cleaning apparatus is first put into operation.
- 19. The single-pass air cleaning apparatus as recited in claim 16, wherein said solid objects are one of: (a) electrically semiconductive, and (b) electrically insulative.
- 20. An air cleaning apparatus, comprising:
a chamber into which a flow of input air is directed, said input air containing a plurality of particles, said input air becoming a flow of output air after being cleaned within said chamber; at least one nozzle through which a liquid is sprayed into said chamber, said liquid being electrically charged, said liquid becoming separated into a plurality of droplets upon exiting said at least one nozzle; and said chamber being configured to cause said flow of input air and said charged liquid droplets to intermix at an intermix space, wherein said plurality of particles are attracted to said charged liquid droplets, thereby removing a portion of said plurality of particles from said input air, which thus becomes said flow of output air; wherein, when said flow of input air passes through said intermix space of said chamber, said plurality of particles is cleaned from said input air at a pressure adjusted efficiency (PAE), which represents the cleaning efficiency in percent divided by the backpressure, that does not deviate by more than 25% after two months of continuous use of said air cleaning apparatus.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application claims the benefit of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/039,854, titled “Apparatus and Method for Purifying Air,” filed on Oct. 29, 2001, which is a continuation-in-part to U.S. application Ser. No. 09/860,288, titled “System and Method For Purifying Air,” filed on May 18, 2001, now abandoned, which claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/205,356, titled “System For Purifying Air,” filed May 18, 2000, now abandoned.
Continuation in Parts (3)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
10039854 |
Oct 2001 |
US |
Child |
10282586 |
Oct 2002 |
US |
Parent |
09860288 |
May 2001 |
US |
Child |
10039854 |
Oct 2001 |
US |
Parent |
60205356 |
May 2000 |
US |
Child |
09860288 |
May 2001 |
US |