Claims
- 1. A reaction chamber to remediate air contaminated with organic material, comprising
a hermetic enclosure having a first inlet to introduce meta-stable radicals; a second inlet to introduce said air contaminated with organic material; an outlet to remove remediated air; and a surface increasing medium housed within said hermetic enclosure.
- 2. The reaction chamber of claim 1, wherein the organic material includes spores.
- 3. The reaction chamber of claim 1, wherein said meta-stable radicals includes ozone.
- 4. The reaction chamber of claim 3, wherein ozone is introduced via said first inlet.
- 5. The reaction chamber of claim 1, wherein the surface increasing medium is comprised of beads of a material inert to the meta-stable radicals.
- 6. The reaction chamber of claim 5, wherein said material inert to the meta-stable radicals is selected from the group consisting of glass and ceramic.
- 7. The reaction chamber of claim 5, wherein said beads are porous.
- 8. The reaction chamber of claim 5, wherein said beads are coated with catalyst.
- 9. The reaction chamber of claim 1, wherein the surface increasing medium is a porous filter.
- 10. The reaction chamber of claim 1, wherein the surface increasing medium is an electrostatic precipitator.
- 11. The reaction chamber of claim 1, further containing an outlet coupling said reaction chamber to a meta-stable radical destroying chamber containing a device effective to convert said meta-stable radicals to stable components.
- 12. The reaction chamber of claim 11, wherein said device effective to convert said meta-stable radicals to stable components is selected from the group consisting of heating coils, ultraviolet light and activated carbon.
- 13. The reaction chamber of claim 1, wherein said inlet is coupled to a pulsed corona discharge apparatus.
- 14. The reaction chamber of claim 13, wherein said pulsed corona discharge apparatus is capable of providing alternating current pulses having an intensity and duration effective to generate meta-stable radicals.
- 15. The reaction chamber of claim 1, wherein said inlet is coupled to a silent discharge plasma device.
- 16. A method of treating organic contaminants trapped in a porous solid medium comprising the steps of:
providing said porous solid medium; passing contaminated air over said porous solid medium thereby trapping said contaminated air in said porous solid medium; and exposing said porous solid medium to alternating current voltage pulses having an intensity and duration effective to generate meta-stable radicals in said porous solid medium that is effective to destroy said organic contaminants.
- 17. The method of claim 16, wherein said porous solid medium is comprised of activated carbon.
- 18. The method of claim 16, wherein said porous solid medium is a HEPA filter.
- 19. The method of claim 16, wherein said porous solid medium is soil.
- 20. The method of claim 16, further wherein said meta-stable radicals includes ozone.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The present application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 09/571,128 that was filed May 15, 2000, which in turn is a division of application Ser. No. 09/041,589 that was filed Mar. 12, 1998 (now issued U.S. Pat. No. 6,080,362), which in turn is a division of application Ser. No. 08/481,172 that was filed Jun. 7, 1995 (now issued U.S. Pat. No. 5,765,054). U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,080,362 and 5,765,054 are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.
Divisions (2)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09041589 |
Mar 1998 |
US |
Child |
09571128 |
May 2000 |
US |
Parent |
08481172 |
Jun 1995 |
US |
Child |
09041589 |
Mar 1998 |
US |
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09571128 |
May 2000 |
US |
Child |
09969906 |
Oct 2001 |
US |