This invention pertains to non-chemical water cleaning systems and particularly to systems and apparatus which utilize ambient air transformation into radicalized oxygen gas, which is further generated for water cleaning purposes.
Water purification has turned an essential requirement due to continuous pollution of water and the need to supply drinkable water. Different methods, chemical and non-chemical, are suggested for water purification. Regarding non-chemical methods, prior art and systems disclosed therein involve only partial aspects of a chamber model for purifying water and related functionalities by producing a purifying reactive gas or air. Accordingly, in all previous prior arts, the integration of the system components comprising UV radiation sources, magnetic field generating sources and air flowing means into the chamber are decoupled as much as possible to obtain the system maximum efficiency and optimal performance. As an example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,655,933 to Johnson the ferromagnetic elements, which induce the magnetic flux fields inside the air flowing chamber are located outside or at the corners of the chamber, presumably to eliminate any unwanted perturbation which may be introduced into the ambient air gas which is flowing from inlet to outlet of this chamber, and degrade the whole system performances. As a result, in the related embodiments disclosed in Johnson, the mutual interaction between the ambient air molecules and the magnetic field, induced by the ferromagnetic rods in the disclosed configurations, is limited by the air chamber diameters and by its geometrical shape. These parameters are designed according to different considerations, which include the required air capacity and water cleaning rate. Unfortunately, such design rules and architecture do not leave enough room/degree of freedom for the person skilled in the art to design and make a highly efficient system, which is optimized per the requirements of a certain application and corresponding client needs. Similarly U.S. Pat. No. 9,321,655 to Kolstad et al disclose similar method and apparatus, however with enhanced performances due to magnetic rods in an anti-symmetric configuration that induce larger magnetic flux on the oxygen gas component of air. Due to the usage of ferromagnetic rods, Johnson and Kolstad suffer from the following problems that degrade the performance of the ionization chamber: i. The magnetic field does not have a coaxial cylindrical symmetry, hence it introduces an non-concentric perturbation to incoming flowing ambient gas. The non-concentric distribution of radicalized gas results in a higher physical interaction between the chamber walls and ambient flowing gas profile which mimics the chamber cylindrical shape. As a result of this perturbation, a higher recombination rate is expected due to higher interaction between the oxygen radicals and ambient gas components. ii. To achieve maximum performance, the magnetic rods and related polarization need to be aligned with respect to the ionization chamber, with respect to other magnetic rods in a given site and between adjacent sites. To overcome this, Kolstad et al embedded the magnetic rods inside long magnetic tubes. The magnetic rods solve the alignment issue however also occupy a significantly high amount of volume inside the ionization chamber lowering its capacity to conduct the compress ambient air. As a result, any minor increase in the rods diameter, which may increase the magnetic field in the chamber, may yield a significant reduction of the free volume of the ionization chamber, limiting the option to optimize the ionization chamber performances.
To compensate the mentioned deficiencies, one can increase UV power specifications or the compressed gas level. However, this can yield in unwanted thermal instabilities and further degrade the ionization chamber performance.
All the required components in the ionization chamber, when correctly configured together may avoid unwanted side effects that can lower the system efficiency degrading its ionization rate and cleaning properties. Such unwanted side effects may be driven by unnecessary increase in the UV power radiation due to scattering and absorption and as a result, unwanted asymmetrical geometrical perturbation that limits the coupling between the UV and ambient gas. Alternatively, the UV power may be enhanced or the rate of compressed air increased. However, any change in the properties of the ionization chamber might modify thermal and other properties of the air flow and as a result degrade system efficiency. In another aspect, an inefficient magnitude of magnetic flux applied on oxygen paramagnetic gas molecules inside the chamber can result in inefficient system, which can function properly only at low compression values of the flowing air.
Moreover, a too high compression gas value or UV power may result in higher gas temperature, significant increase in recombination rate of oxygen gas phase radicals back to their natural diatomic and/or neutral state. This is due to a relatively increased interaction between the oxygen gas molecules and chamber sidewalls and between the radicalized oxygen gas molecules and the other neutral oxygen, nitrogen and other non-radical air molecules.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an efficient high performance non-chemical water cleaning system.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a water cleaning system with ionization chamber with a concentric configuration to improve the production of ionized allotrope oxygen gas as the cleaning agent, which is introduced into water.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a system in which coupling of variables that influence oxygen allotrope production enhances water cleaning efficiency by the system.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and a method which is scalable according to the volume of water reservoirs.
This and other objects and embodiments of the invention shell become apparent as the description proceeds.
The present invention pertains to non-chemical water purification, treatment and maintenance systems. In particular, the present invention pertains to systems which utilize modified air, which is radicalized/excited and introduced into a container of contaminated water with mechanical pressure pumps/compressor and gas guiding means. The aggressive electrical and chemical reaction of the air radicals and their related products with the contaminated water results in almost a complete elimination of the contaminations which are dissolved, flushed and drained out from the system leaving a very high degree of purified water. Chemical water purification systems are well known in the prior art. However, such treatment produces only partial water purification with additional chemical bi-products that carry side effects. As opposed to these systems, the present invention doesn't utilize any supplemental materials such as chemical detergents or biocides, used for inorganic and organic infections, and does not have any side effects or unwanted bi-products. Similar non-chemical prior art systems were disclosed such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,655,933 and 9,321,665 as discussed above.
In view of the above, in one embodiment, the present invention provides a water purification system comprising:
a chamber comprising inlet and outlet for flowing incoming and outgoing air into and out of the chamber;
at least one UV radiation bulb/lamp;
at least one pair of magnetic rings; and
a skeleton configured for occupying center volume of the chamber from top to bottom around central longitudinal axis of the chamber, where the skeleton comprises inner space for accommodating the at least one UV radiation bulb/lamp and at least one pair of holding elements for holding the at least one pair of magnetic rings around the at least one UV radiation bulb/lamp,
wherein the purification system comprises concentric configuration to minimally perturb profile and distribution of the incoming and outgoing air, the at least one pair of magnetic rings are positioned in parallel relative each other and configured to induce maximal concentric magnetic flux field on molecules of the flowing incoming and outgoing air.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the air ionization chamber of the water purification and treatment system has a cylindrical geometrical shape comprising the housing sleeve which has a cylindrical geometrical shape, where the housing frame has a cylindrical geometrical shape.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the water purification and treatment further comprises sets of concentric cylindrical ferromagnetic rings arranged in a similar relative magnetic polarity or at relative opposite magnetic polarities at the top, center and bottom locations along the tube chamber main axis, wherein each set comprises a magnetic rings with opposite magnetic polarities. The rings are mechanically connected to the skeleton carrier with base holders.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the ionization chamber of the water purification and treatment system is made of aluminum material.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the ionization chamber of the water purification and treatment system is coated with PVC (Polyvinylchloride).
In another embodiment of the present invention, the housing frame is made of aluminium and its UV bulb and ferromagnetic element skeleton carriers including the attached holders are made of steel/aluminium and are coated with stainless steel.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the air ionization chamber is connected to a venturi pump for vacuum the active air from the chamber into the water treated pipe connected to drinking water systems of animals or irrigation systems or water reservoirs.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the housing frame of the water purification and treatment system is made of or coated with stainless steel.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the internal surface of the ionization chamber comprises a housing tube/sleeve frame, wherein the internal side of the tube/sleeve housing frame and the top and bottom covers are coated with TiO2.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the water purification and treatment system further comprises a plurality of UV bulbs/lamps in suitable design and configuration.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the water purification and treatment system further comprising an air diffuser which is connected on one side to the air pump and the ionization chamber inlet on its other side.
In a further embodiment of the present invention, the water purification and treatment system comprises a venturi air pipe line, which is connected on one side to the air pump or air diffuser outlet and the ionization chamber inlet on its other side through an adaptor.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the external side of the ionization chamber comprises air and electrical inlets and outlets which are isolated with a Teflon material for vacuum isolation purposes.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the water purification and treatment system further comprises a pre-filtering apparatus which is configured to clean the ambient air from impurities and contaminations before being injected into the cylindrical tube ionization chamber.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the water purification and treatment system further comprises a water cooling system.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the water purification and treatment system comprises several adaptors, which are connected to the chamber air inlet and outlet holes and other electrical holes. The adaptors are designed with threaded sides to enable a highly strong screwing mechanical attachment to the external pipes or electrical wire connections.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the radicalized and radiated air is pumped from the external pipe into the water tank or container, wherein the water may be stirred to achieve better results so that the pumped radicalized air is capable of producing the desired kinetics within the water.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the radicalized air purifies the water by the formation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) through aggressive reaction of oxygen radical molecules that react with the water molecules and contaminants within the water.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the water purification is done by direct interaction between the oxygen radical allotropes and the contaminants within the water.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the water purification and treatment system further comprises a module that drains and flushes out contamination debris from the purified water.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the water purification and treatment system is connected to various types of water reservoirs, systems and conduits such as drinking water supply systems, swimming pools and water piping, and may be used in various fields of industry, farming, agriculture, gardening recycling and urban use.
In another embodiment of the present invention, the water purification and treatment system injects compressed ambient air into the chamber, and transforms it into radicalized/excited gas phase that comprises oxygen allotrope. The system further guides the allotrope through the chamber outlet and an external pipe into a water container or tank.
In one aspect, the present invention pertains to a non-chemical water purification treatment system. In another aspect of the invention, the system is configured for treating and maintaining polluted or contaminated water using modified ambient air without any additional usage of supplemental materials such as chemical detergents or biocides.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the system is provided in a compact closed chamber for safety and mobility. In another embodiment of the present invention, the system is connected to various types of water reservoirs, systems and conduits such as drinking water supply systems, swimming pools and water piping. In still another embodiment, the system is used in various fields of industry, farming, agriculture, gardening, recycling and urban use.
In one particular aspect of the present invention, the system injects and compresses a modified ambient air through a cylindrical tube chamber that goes radicalization of the gases it contains, where said ambient air comprises mostly nitrogen and oxygen gas molecules. In a further aspect of the invention, the paramagnetic properties of the oxygen component of the ambient air comprising mostly diatomic oxygen gas molecules, are employed to focus and concentrate the oxygen molecules at certain locations in the tube chamber. This is done with permanent magnetic flux fields, which are located inside the ionization chamber and applied with a specific configuration of concentric ferromagnetic ring shape elements. These rings are located inside the cylindrical tube chamber along its main axis.
In a still further aspect of the invention, the oxygen molecules are exposed to UV light which is radiated from UV light source comprising two internal lamps with two different wavelength ranges of UV light, 180-195 and 240-280 [nm] respectively. The UV light sources generate hemolytic cleavage of chemical bond in the oxygen molecules, and induce it into several stable states of radical oxygen molecule products that compose an allotrope of different ionized oxygen molecules.
In one particular aspect of the invention, the stable oxygen radicals flow out of the cylindrical tube chamber by an applied external pressure and are directed into the water purification and treatment tank. In still another embodiment, the cylindrical tube chamber is made of inert material or coated within with inert material such as TiO2 designed for physical protection from the flowing radicalized oxygen gas.
In still another aspect of the invention, the radicalized and radiated air is pumped into the water, where the water are stirred for better results so that the pumped radicalized air can produce the desired kinetics within the water.
In still another aspect of the invention, the radicalized air purifies the water by the formation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) through aggressive reaction of air radical molecules, i.e., oxygen, which react with the water molecules and contaminants in the water. In still another aspect of the invention, in addition to the hydrogen peroxide interaction, there is a direct interaction between the oxygen allotrope radicals and the contaminants.
In a still another aspect the invention, the system produces high degree of purification and quality of water without introducing chemical and/or biological organic or inorganic bi-products or other side effects as in chemical water cleaning reactions. In still another aspect of the invention, the system continuously supplies the modified radicalized air to the water to ensure constant purification and supply of purified water.
The present invention and disclosed system are designed for treatment purification and maintenance of polluted or contaminated water inside various large water housing containers, utilizing modified ionized air products without any other supplemental chemical materials such as chemical detergents or biocides used for inorganic and organic infections as done in several previous works.
The current system injects a compressed ambient air into an inlet of a cylindrical tube shape chamber to produce modified ambient air, transformed through a radicalization process upon exposure to UV light radiation at two different wavelength ranges of UV light 180-195 [nm] and 240-280 [nm]. The ambient oxygen gas component is highly reactive, where its paramagnetic properties are utilized to direct, focus and concentrate it at certain locations using external magnetic flux and magnetically activate it to higher magnetization levels required to enhance excitation process by UV radiation into its radical allotrope phase. The magnetic flux is generated by a certain configuration of concentric ferromagnetic ring shape elements at certain locations inside the chamber. The ambient air, particularly the paramagnetic oxygen molecules which are magnetized by the magnetic field of the rings, is further radiated by the UV light radiation source, which induces its radical higher states of energy.
The radicalized oxygen phase comprises an allotrope of several ionized and excited oxygen states and is directed to the tube chamber outlet by external pressure and pumped out into the contaminated water. The water may be stirred, producing the desired kinetics required to improve the solubility of the ionized oxygen radicals, which are pumped into the water. It is assumed that the modified air purifies the water by the formation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) through aggressive reaction of radical oxygen gas molecules, which further react with the contaminants, or alternatively by a direct interaction between the oxygen gas molecule radicals and the contaminations. It is assumed that some part of the oxygen radicals are concentrated in small bubbles which serve as agents that conduct them to direct interaction with water contaminations. The contaminants are either modified or broken into harmless debris which may then be filtered, flushed and drained out of the water containers. The system continuously supplies the modified (active) air in a small bubbles formation to the water to ensure constant purification and supply of purified water.
Modelling and design of non-chemical water treatment and purification systems such as the one presented in this application is in general a highly complex and non-trivial task which involves various considerations such physical, mechanical and other design considerations. Most of these considerations are derived mainly from several different physical mechanisms which affect directly the performance of the purification system, however also including some mutual interactions between these mechanisms. Hence, in order to yield a highly efficient water treatment and purification system, it is required to correctly employ these physical mechanisms to the ambient air molecules and in particular the paramagnetic oxygen gas molecules, while they flow/propagate through the ionization chamber. Such physical mechanisms and related considerations include the following:
Without limiting the invention to a specific model and embodiments, we assume a general model for the present invention and apparatuses. The general model and methods are applied to apparatus and method which produce oxygen radicals from natural air in a sealed tube with UV radiation, which is further subjected to magnetic field. The model essentially contains several components that need to be considered in the ionization chamber cleaning system. Moreover, in order to achieve a maximum efficiency of the said clearing system, one should consider as well the mutual interactions between the said main components which include:
Essentially, the model of the present invention assumes a concentric apparatus with a UV radiation narrow bulb at the center of a cylindrical tube along the entire length of the tube and magnetic round rings made of ferromagnetic material, arranged in pairs around the UV bulb at selected distances. The UV bulb and magnetic rings are held by a central skeleton at a certain stable configuration. The air tube chamber has upper inlet for incoming air and lower outlet for outgoing air exposed to UV radiation and magnetic field. The concentric structure of the apparatus creates a magnetic field that spreads out from the centre of the tube, i.e., the location of the UV lamp/bulb, to the walls of the tube and vertically relative to the centre of the tube. The configuration of the magnetic rings generates a magnetic field that magnetically concentrates, attracting the oxygen molecules in it, due to its paramagnetic properties around a concentric axis at certain geometrical areas in the chamber. As a result of the applied compression pressure, the flux flow direction of the ambient gas in the tube shape ionization chamber is conducted along its longitudinal direction from its inlet to its outlet. The air molecules are mainly drifting, instead of diffusing, along the longitudinal axis of the tube ionization chamber towards the outlet. The local magnetic fields, which are generated by the pairs of rings along the longitudinal axis, temporarily attract oxygen molecules and induce their partial ionization together with the UV radiation. The combination of directional longitudinal transport of the oxygen molecules by the air flux and the transverse and longitudinal direction of stable magnetic fields along the longitudinal axis of the tube yields an efficient time delay of the ambient neutral oxygen gas molecules at the areas with high magnetic flux and further contributes to their conversion to oxygen radicals or excited state oxygen molecules.
Furthermore, the time exposure of the radicalized and/or excited magnetized oxygen molecules in the presence of a magnetic field is proportional to the magnetic field forces and is inversely proportional to the effective kinetic energy of the oxygen molecules, which is derived from the compressed gas level. The paramagnetic oxygen gas molecules are attracted to specific areas of high magnetic flux field and then activated to higher magnetic activation levels and further ionized by the UV radiation bulb. Hence, the design and architecture of the magnetic field, which results in its specific distribution, is a highly important factor in the efficiency of the ionization process. Moreover, the magnetic flux field and the kinetic flux of the air molecules determine the temporary concentration of the radicalized and/or excited oxygen molecules and their ionization rate. The radicalized and/or excited oxygen molecules component is enveloped by the incoming flux of the ambient air. The kinetic interaction between these two components, comprising radicalized and/or excited gas and ambient neutral air and their further interaction and collisions with the ionization chamber walls including its internal skeleton, magnetic rings and UV bulb, drive the recombination rate of the radicalized gas into ambient gas or decay of the excited state. The geometrical shape of the ionization chamber and its internal design are also highly important factors that directly influence its performance and efficiency. As a result, for a given magnetic field architecture, the higher the gas compression level the lesser the magnetic activation enhancement impact on the oxygen gas molecule ionization/excitation rate.
Further, the higher the air flux and the lower the intensity of the magnetic field, the lesser the time of stay of the radical oxygen in the magnetic field, on the one hand, and the lesser the recombination of the radicalized/excited oxygen molecules and return to neutral state on the other hand. The lower the air flux and the higher the intensity of the magnetic field, the greater the time of stay of the oxygen radicals in the magnetic field and the lesser their recombination and decay to neutral state.
In a one embodiment of the present invention, the optimization of the chamber is set according to the following main parameters, which are the geometrical shape and design of the chamber. This design includes its internal architecture comprising the skeleton that carries the magnetic rings and accommodates the UV bulbs and its influence on ambient air flow properties, kinetics which is driven by the compression level, paramagnetic properties and thermal properties, magnetic field distribution, intensity and flux field and UV radiation field, which induces transformation of ambient air into radicalized/excited gas phase. In a further embodiment of the present invention, the dimensions of the magnetic rings are proportional to the dimensions of the chamber. Further, optimization of dimensions of a plurality of rings, internal configuration in a specific magnetic site, which induce the magnetic field intensity distribution and magnetic flux field inside the chamber, is done according to the required radicalization/excitation rate. Also included in evaluation of optimized relative dimensions are the chamber dimensions, geometrical shape, architecture and design, ambient air flow compression level, including kinetics, and paramagnetic and thermal properties and UV radiation field which induces radicalization/excitation of ambient air.
In a further embodiment of the present invention, the magnetic field configuration comprises a plurality of magnetic sites, each site is configured to accommodate one pair of magnetic rings in a similar or opposite magnetic polarity. In a further embodiment of the present invention, the magnetic field induced by the rings in each magnetic site varies from 10−3 to 10+6 gauss with sufficient magnetic flux, which is required for a given rate of radicalization/excitation at a certain air compression level and chamber parameters such as geometrical shape and design, internal architecture, ambient air flow properties, including kinetics, air paramagnetic and thermal properties, magnetic field distribution, intensity and flux field and UV radiation field which induces the ambient air into radicalized/excited state. In a further embodiment of the present invention, each magnetic site comprises a pair of magnetic rings with geometrical shape, size, and polarities. In still another embodiment, the contribution of the configuration of the magnetic site to the magnetic field and magnetic field flux in the chamber free volume, including close to its sidewalls, and corresponding contribution in proximity to the magnetic site are considered for inducing radicalization/excitation of air.
In a one preferred embodiment of the present invention, the chamber has a cylindrical shape with two different volumes and lengths of 892 and 430 mm, with similar internal and external diameters of 63.4 mm and 73.15 mm. In still another embodiment, the ferromagnetic rings are made of NdFeB (Grade N42) material coated with Ni—Cu—Ni (Nickel) and have a width of 3.1 mm with external diameter of 31.75 mm, internal diameter of 19.05 mm and thickness of 6.35 mm. In still another embodiment, the diameters of the internal and external pipes at the input and the output of the chamber are 10 mm. The UV lamps have lengths corresponding to the chamber lengths with nominal powers of 21 and 39 watts, respectively. The water reservoir for purification is in volumes in the range of 1000-10000 litters.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the magnetic rings are made of ferromagnetic materials made from rare earth magnets. In particular, the materials are selected from Nd2Fe14B, SmCo5 Sm2Co17, composite magnetic materials such as BaFe12O19, MnBi, Ce(CuCo)5, a strong permanent magnets such as, Alnico IV/V and Alcomax, which are trade names for composite materials made from alloys of aluminium, nickel and cobalt with iron with additional small amounts of Cu, Ti and Nb and ferrite materials of ferrimanetic materials such as Fe2O3, and Fe3O4. In a further embodiment of the present invention, the magnetic field configuration is generated by a plurality of magnetic ring pairs accommodated by a plurality of magnetic sites, wherein each magnetic site comprises one pair of rings comprising one ring made from one of the magnetic materials listed above and one ring made of a metallic material that can be magnetized under induced external magnetic field, such as iron and steel.
The system physical modeling detailed in the previous paragraph may result in various design approaches which can be used for different water purification systems. Such approaches should consider the following main aspects and interactions between the main components of the ionization chamber as follows:
Considering the previous modeling, we suggest the following embodiments: In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, we propose a fully concentric design for said system comprising a tube shape cylindrical ionization chamber, cylindrical elongated UV radiation bulb and at least one magnetic site comprising of least two magnetic rings which are located symmetrically around the chamber central axis. The magnetic rings are positioned on a skeleton aluminum structure which is designed to hold them in a specific configuration aligning them relative to the ionization chamber central axis, other rings in the specific magnetic site, and other magnetic sites in the ionization chamber. The skeleton structure, including its localized magnetic sites, is designed to minimally perturb the profile and distribution of the incoming flowing ambient and radicalized air components. The magnetic rings can be positioned in parallel, symmetric or anti-parallel, anti-symmetric, magnetic polarization and are configured to induce a maximal concentric magnetic flux field on the compressed air flowing molecules. The magnetic rings radius and shape are defined according to specific requirement of the magnetic flux field, minimizing as well the interaction with the flowing gas. As a result, the radicalized/excited gas profile mimics the magnetic field concentric profile and hence minimally interacts with ambient air flowing components, significantly reducing their mutual interactions and interactions with the chamber walls, internal skeleton and rings. The chamber diameter and length, diameter of the UV radiation bulb and length are selected according to bench mark requirements of required compression level of gas which are predefined by certain required application. These specifications also concern the required operation power and cleaning rate of water of said certain application. After setting these parameters, the magnetic field profile and distribution are set and optimized to achieve the required cleaning in a certain air compression level. As specified, in the current design, the chamber benefits from the concentric design of the magnetic field which significantly reduces the specified interaction of the ionization chamber mentioned above.
In a further embodiment of the present invention, the ionization chamber design employs a method which utilizes strong interaction between several main physical mechanisms, such as interaction between the oxygen molecules with the magnetic field and UV radiation source while maintaining interaction between gas molecules and other physical mechanisms as low as possible. Such mechanisms may be the air gas flowing profile properties and its thermal properties. This method and design are different from previous prior arts that describe non-chemical water treatment and purification systems, and suggest weak coupling interaction between all the physical mechanisms that control the system. In other words the main objective of this system is to ionize/excite oxygen gas molecules in a most efficient way possible to their radicalized allotropic states, while maintaining as possible normal flow field inside the chamber. Another objective is to suppress the probability and possible recombination mechanisms of the radicalized/excited gas back to diatomic oxygen ground state, while it propagates in the ionization chamber to the air outlet. As a result, we employ a cylindrical symmetric, concentric design of a tube chamber, where both magnetic field and the UV radiation source are located in close proximity to and positioned along the central axis. In addition, as will be further described, the applied magnetic fields comprise two or three sets of concentric cylindrical ferromagnetic rings arranged in the same polarity or opposite polarities according to the configurations in
Furthermore, the system comprises a remote control and monitoring unit (9) that monitors and controls the system operational values versus their specified ones and can be mechanically or electronically switched between ON and OFF operating states. The monitoring unit monitors the voltage and power supply to the system and particularly voltage and power values of the UV lamp, fan, electronic flow meter and other units in the system.
The magnetic field configuration comprises three sets of concentric cylindrical ferromagnetic rings (15a, 15b, 15c) arranged at selected polarity, occupying an effective small portion of the total volume of the tube chamber. The rings are positioned along the z-axis of the skeleton, particularly at top and bottoms sides and center of the tube chamber main axis, where each set comprises magnetic negative and positive poles rings (15e, 150. In one particular embodiment, the rings are arranged with the same polarity. Generally, the tube and housing are made from chemically and mechanically durable or resistant materials. The UV bulb/lamp (14) can comprise two internal lamps that radiate at two wavelength ranges of 180-195 [nm] and 240-280 [nm], and can be designed and produced in two different types and configuration of either mercury filament or LED light. Further, the lamps electrical connector configurations can include 2 or 4 pins and be located at different locations at their sides depending on the light bulb/lamp type. As shown in
To enable electrical and vacuum functionalities the inlet and outlet holes are made out of SS (Stainless Steel) resistant material. The covers are mechanically attached to aluminium/SS housing frame (13) at its top and bottom bases (17a, 17b) and external tube structure (16). The external connections of the ionization chamber are sealed with Teflon to ensure the required vacuum condition for air that flows inside the chamber. The attachment to the top and bottom bases (17a, 17b) are done with special screws, inserted into holes (17c) at the frame top and bottom sides. A plurality of adapter and fastening elements are added to the air and electrical inlets and outlets to enable insertion of electrical input and output lines without affecting internal atmospheric pressure. These elements are also used to enable removal of air from the ionization chamber through specially designed air outlets.
In what follows, we have explored the ionization chamber performances and experimental properties and demonstrate its cleaning properties. To this end, we have employed two particular designs and embodiments of the present invention comprising two ionization chambers with two different volumes and lengths of 892 and 430 mm, with similar internal and external diameters of 63.4 mm and 73.15 mm.
The ferromagnetic rings made out of NdFeB (Grade N42) material coated by Ni—Cu—Ni (Nickel) with a width of 3.1 mm with external diameter of 31.75 mm, internal diameter of 19.05 mm and thickness of 6.35 mm.
The UV bulbs/lamps had corresponding lengths corresponding to the ionization chamber lengths with nominal powers of 21 and 39 watts, respectively.
To demonstrate the ionization chamber cleaning properties, it was connected to a water reservoir with volume of 1000 litters. For experimental purposes, the ionization chamber with the smaller/higher volume was connected to a small container with volume of 4 litters. The UV radiation lamp was identical in all experiments and demonstrations. The internal and external pipe diameters at the input and the output of the ionization chamber were 10 mm.
In this measurement, the dissolved DPD at certain density of radicles results in a certain colour and related colour intensity. Experiments performed for ionization chamber with magnetic rings in anti-symmetric reference configuration, shown in
The values of the corresponding intensity are evaluated by using the DPD color intensity table shown in
Without limiting the invention to the following theoretical discussion, these experiments show that radicalized/excited oxygen gas exits through the ionization chamber outlet assisted by venturi pipe (2a) and diffuser (not shown) into the water container. This results in several reactant/product phases comprising: i. A main component of free radicals encapsulated inside air bubbles containing various oxygenated allotropic oxygen radicals; ii. H2O2, Hydrogen Peroxide, produced upon chemical reaction between the oxygenated radicalized gas and the water in the container. iii. Short life-time free radicals that do not chemically react with water. There might be other types chemical reactants/products which flow out of the ionization chamber into the water container.
Experiments were performed with ionization chamber connected to a small water container, using the DPD experimental gauge setup shown in
Without limiting the invention to the following experimental discussion, it has been noticed and hence it is assumed that the main reactants that participate in the cleaning processing of the contaminated water and further chemically interact with DPD are components i and ii. Furthermore, we found reacting/product component i (free radicals which are encapsulated inside air bubbles) to be the most reactive. The main phase of the radicals are bubbles that diffuse into water in the container, flow up into the air-water interface due to buoyancy forces, thereby creating arrays of bubbles along that interface. In the practical cleaning mode with the ionization chamber, the bubbles that flow through the water reservoir serve as agents that deliver the radicals to direct interaction with the various contaminations which flow inside the treated water. The bubbles, which do not interact with contaminations, flow up and float at the air-water interface as a result of buoyancy forces. Due to various physical reasons, the partial percentage of the floating bubbles that do not react with contaminations have an average finite life time which results in their explosion into the surrounding air and/or into the treated water. Another component of bubbles that dissolves in the water releases the encapsulated free radicals into the treated water. These mechanisms produce secondary reduction mechanism with liquid hydrogen peroxide.
In a further embodiment of the present invention, the water reservoir is fully or at least partially closed. In a further embodiment of the present invention, the water reservoir is subjected to a high intrinsic internal pressure along the air-water interface as a result of the ejected gas phase of the radicalized/excited gas. This is also in accordance with Henry's Law regarding equilibrium between liquid and gas phase concentrations of any particular species. In a further embodiment of the present invention, the atmospheric pressure is enhanced by an external pressure applied to the water reservoir. In both previous embodiments, there is enhanced interaction of the oxygen gas radicals that flow above the water with water in the reservoir, which results in another generation mechanism of H2O2 liquid which further cleans the contaminated water. All said reactants comprising free radicals inside the bubbles and H2O2 react with the dissolved DPD, thereby modifying the water color in the water container.
It is clear from the experimental results that in all experiments the water color is modified to a darker intensity color, suggesting radicals concentration in a certain percentage in the water container. Furthermore, in the reference anti-symmetric magnetic configuration, the color is darker for each compressed gas flow level. This is particularly relevant relative to the configuration without magnetic field. The experimental results show that the darkest color is achieved for the anti-symmetric magnetic configuration, shown in
In further experiments, we compared the dynamic performances of the ionization chamber for different configurations of magnetic rings, as presented in
The previous experiments were performed for a small container with a size of 4 litter. Hence we aim at achieving a parameter value that does not depend on the container volume and diameter and generates an accurate characteristic of the ionization chamber. Accordingly, we have modelled an approximated equation for the average radicals flux density, ϕ.
(ϕm/ϕ0)˜(nm/n0)*(T00/T0m), 1.1
where the radicals flux with and without a magnetic field is linearly modelled as a multiplication of the radical density fluxes, ϕm, ϕ0,
with the corresponding stabilization times, Tm0, T00, as follows:
n
m˜ϕm*Tm0/V, and n0˜ϕ0*T00/V, 1.2
where V is the container volume, Nm, nm and N0, n0 are the total number of radicals and their related concentrations, with and without magnetic fields, which are also related as follows: nm=Nm/V, n0=N0/V.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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256745 | Jan 2018 | IL | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/IL2019/050025 | 1/4/2019 | WO | 00 |