RU2740202C1 - Air cleaning and sterilizing device - Google Patents

Abstract

FIELD: air cleaning devices.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to devices for cleaning air from finely dispersed mechanical particles. Device for cleaning and sterilizing air comprises housing with channel having inlet and outlet holes for air passage, high voltage source and electric filter, which includes corona electrode or electrodes for electric charge transfer to mechanical and biological particles and molecules, bacteria and viruses, and located at a distance precipitation electrode or electrodes, on which recombination of attracted charged mechanical and biological particles takes place. Precipitation electrode is a layer of electroconductive sterilizing liquid, and device for cleaning and sterilizing air is additionally equipped with vessel with supply of electroconductive sterilizing liquid and equipment for permanent or periodic removal from said layer of electroconductive sterilizing liquid contaminated with products of decomposition of biological particles and captured mechanical particles, its cleaning and metered supply into said layer.

EFFECT: invention simplifies the device, increases efficiency, increases time for efficient operation and productiveness.

4 cl, 2 dwg

Description

The invention relates to the field of devices for air purification from fine mechanical particles, including fungi, spores, bacteria and other microorganisms, as well as viruses and prions, and its sterilization. Such devices are used as separate devices that provide air purification and disinfection in a separate room with a high pathogenic load, and as part of complex air treatment devices.

From the prior art, related to the field of technology of the proposed solution, various technical devices are known based on various physical or chemical processes of cleaning and sterilization.

The most widespread and experience of use are devices that use processes and devices for this, united by the not entirely accurate term "quartzization". They use ultraviolet (UV) radiation for disinfection. Depending on the wavelength used, the process is carried out by different devices.

Radiation of open quartz irradiators with a wavelength of less than 200 nm destroys bacteria and the structure of virus molecules, both in the air in the room and on the surface of objects. Radiation in this range leads in parallel to the formation of ozone (03), which is a powerful oxidant and completes the destruction of biological structures. Such irradiators [Quartz lamps and irradiators, DEZAR PRO website, [electronic resource], URL: https: //dezar.pro/articles/quartz (access date 04.06.2020)], are widely used in hospitals, doctors' offices, children's institutions, etc. The disadvantage of such devices is a sharp drop in their efficiency with distance from the UV radiation source, the need for prolonged exposure to achieve the disinfection effect, the harmful effect of UV radiation on the skin and eyesight. And, most importantly, the negative impact of ozone on people. Therefore, after a sufficiently long sterilization, it is necessary to ventilate the room, replace the air saturated with ozone with untreated air, which generally reduces its value.

This disadvantage is overcome in UV devices called recirculators. In them, the source of UV radiation is placed in an opaque case, through which a built-in fan pumps the disinfected air [Marina Gess, "Running in a circle: air recirculator", site "TION" [electronic resource], URL: https: //tion.ru/ blog / recirkulyator / (accessed 04.06.2020)]. Moreover, most of these devices use special glass UV lamps, which cut out part of the radiation spectrum with a length of less than 250 nm. This reduces the generation of ozone and harmful exposure of people in the manned room to an acceptable level. Due to the small volume of the irradiated space, the radiation flux density increases and, accordingly, its damaging ability. At the same time, the duration of the effect of radiation on the air flowing in the recirculator is short, and its multiple circulation is required to obtain a cumulative effect of the effect on biological objects in the air. Reduces the efficiency of devices and decreases the concentration of ozone.

A separate group of UV devices for air disinfection are catalytic oxidizers. They use long-wave UV radiation of approx. 900 nm, which is relatively safe for biological objects, does not generate ozone, but activates a catalyst (TiO2), on which all biology is oxidized by atomic oxygen. Such devices also require recirculation, otherwise the dimensions of the catalyst panels become unacceptably large.

However, a common disadvantage of these groups of devices is the lack of air purification from both the biological objects mentioned with varying degrees of damage and from mechanical particles and suspended moisture droplets. The latter are the main carriers of viruses and bacteria and at the same time are able to shield them from radiation.

A high level of cleaning (separation from air) of fine particles is demonstrated by devices using high-voltage electrostatic effects. The essence of these effects is the creation of a non-uniform electric field between two electrodes, which have a sharply different outer surface. The electric field strength near the small corona electrode (needle) is very high. A cloud of free charge carriers is formed in the zone of this electrode. These charges electrify mechanical particles, ionize air components, and they begin to move by field forces to the second electrode. As you move away from it, the field strength decreases, which prevents the arc discharge. Recombination takes place on the second electrode, charged particles give off their charge and are partially deposited on this electrode, called a precipitation one. In this case, the flow of charged particles in the cleaning zone located between the electrodes forces uncharged particles to move along the way to form the so-called electron wind.

The range of particle sizes subject to the electrification process is very large. In air ionizers, for example, in the Chizhevsky chandelier [Panov V.I., "Chizhevsky's chandelier - a device of longevity", p. 41-43, ed. house "Peter", 2017], corona discharge electrons are given to molecules of air components, in particular, oxygen. These molecules have a simple symmetrical structure and require a higher field strength to ionize them. The more complex a molecule has, the larger it is, the easier it is to tell it to ionize, the more charge it can take. And the more forces will act on it in the electric field in the cleaning zone, the more energetically it will move to the collecting electrode. It is even easier to transport large particles (there is a simple school experience with "jumping" pieces of paper to an electrified comb).

Technical devices built on this principle, as a rule, perform the function of electrostatic precipitators for large generators of flue combustion products, etc. They are used in boiler houses, CHP plants, chemical industries for fine cleaning of waste gases from soot and other fine solid or liquid, droplet products [Polina Burmaga, "How are CHP emissions cleaned up", SGK Online website [electronic resource], URL: https: // sibgenco.online/news/element/battery-cyclones-versus-electrostatic-precipitators/ (accessed 04.06.2020); "Electrostatic precipitators of the UGT type", site "Atmosphere. Production of gas cleaning equipment "[electronic resource], URL: http://atmosfera-yar.ru/gas_equipment/electrofilters/elektrofiltry_tipa_ugt/, (access date 04.06.2020)].

Features and technical solutions of such filters relate mainly to technical solutions to retain contaminants brought to the settling electrode, and their subsequent removal [Ismagilov FR, Khairullin I.Kh., Okhotnikov MV, Nusenkis A.A. , Electrostatic filter for cleaning flue gases of small and medium-sized boilers, Vestnik USATU, 2017, V. 21, No. 3 (77), p. 67-70].

The search for such optimal solutions is associated with the fundamental drawbacks of such filters: after recombination on the deposition electrode, particles that have lost their charge can be uncontrollably carried away by the air flow from the filter, reducing its efficiency. Another part of the contamination deposited on the collecting electrode disrupts its electrical conductivity, active area, which often requires the development of methods for cleaning the electrode (for example, a technical solution for a foreign patent for an invention No. KR20130024589A, priority from 31.08.2011, copyright holder ZIHOM CO LTD.) ...

Despite these disadvantages, the possibility of selective transportation in the electrostatic field of micro-objects from the simplest molecules of air components (O2, CO2, N2, H2O) to relatively large mechanical dust particles opens up prospects for building air sterilizers on this principle.

Viruses and bacteria, built from thousands of molecules, lie in between these examples and the selection of field strengths can be transported selectively. In this case, even larger particles of dust, droplet moisture, which are also carriers of viruses and bacteria, the more they will be involved in the transportation process.

The most advanced technical solution for sterilizing air from fungi, spores and other pathogens is set out in patent No. W09856489A1 Ionisations filter zur reinigung von luft (application for Russian invention No. 99125116) (priority 12.06.1998, applicant HELTER Heinz (DE)) "IONIZATION FILTER FOR AIR CLEANING ". It has been chosen as the closest analogue.

This technical solution is characterized in that it is an ionization filter for purifying air contaminated with dust particles and other inorganic or organic hazardous substances, containing at least one electrically charged corona electrode for the production of conductive particles and at least one collecting electrode for capturing particles of harmful substances moving in the electric field between the corona and collecting electrodes. The main distinguishing feature of the technical solution is the placement of an additional layer with denaturing properties on the flow path of the deposited particles of harmful substances. In this case, a denaturing layer is understood to mean a material that has a free area of mass transfer for microorganisms, which is prepared in such a way that the contacting microorganisms die after a short time.

The denaturing layer can be made strongly acidic or strongly alkaline. As substances with a denaturing effect, copper compounds or other known toxic materials with which the corresponding layer has been impregnated or made of can be used. The invention assumes that ordinary dust particles and microorganisms, passing through the denaturing layer, are deposited on the collecting electrode of the ionization filter.

Additionally, the denaturing layers can be coated with hygroscopic substances that bind moisture from the air. Due to this, atmospheric moisture does not penetrate into the denaturing layer and does not reduce the strongly acidic and / or strongly alkaline properties of the denaturing layer. Also, the denaturing layer can be impregnated with active substances against the formation of endotoxins, poly- and / or monoclonal antibodies.

The disadvantages of this technical solution are that the denaturing layer during the operation of the device is saturated with charged mechanical particles and microorganisms. Their recombination occurs only after passing through this layer and contacting the deposition electrode. The charged particles create an electric charge in the layer that is the same as the polarity of the corona. This reduces the corona field strength and impairs cleaning.

The technical solutions proposed in the patent for improving the electrical conductivity of the denaturing layer material by including appropriate materials, for example, an electrically conductive wire mesh or by reinforcing with graphite, are complex and only complicate the removal from this layer of both mechanical particles that have lost their charge and decomposition products of biological objects. This, in turn, leads to a limitation of the duration of effective operation of the filter, limitation of its performance, the need for preliminary air purification and periodic replacement of the denaturing layer.

Thus, the prototype does not offer a fully-fledged continuously operating electrostatic precipitator, since it does not provide for a solution to retain and remove waste in the form of dust, dead microorganisms and other particles from the deposition electrode. In this regard, the prototype is obviously limited in the ways of implementing the solution set forth in it.

The aim of the present invention is to eliminate these disadvantages, namely to simplify the device, increase its efficiency, increase the time of effective operation and productivity, and expand the possible field of application.

This goal is achieved by the fact that in the known device the collecting electrode is made in the form of a layer of electrically conductive sterilizing liquid, and the device is additionally equipped with a vessel with a supply of electrically conductive sterilizing liquid and equipment for permanent or periodic removal of contaminated by decomposition products of biological particles and entrapped mechanical particles of electrically conductive sterilizing liquid from said layer, cleaning it and dispensing it into said layer.

To supply voltage to the liquid layer forming the collecting electrode, a metal current lead is provided, and the surface of the current lead for forming the liquid collecting electrode is made hydrophilic or hygroscopic.

The air supply to the cleaning zone located between the corona and collecting electrodes, and its movement in this zone is carried out by the electron wind when charged particles move in the cleaning zone and can be intensified using an additional recirculation fan.

The technical result achieved by the proposed technical solution is as follows.

The recombination of the charges of mechanical and biological particles entering the liquid collecting electrode occurs immediately when they enter the liquid, directly on the surface without the formation of a layer charged with the same name for the corona. Due to this, the discharge of charges from the corona electrode does not decrease and the efficiency does not decrease.

Mechanical particles and droplet moisture, which are also carriers of bacteria and viruses, falling on the surface of the liquid sterilizing precipitation electrode, are held in it by surface tension forces. In this case, biological objects on their surface are destroyed.

Degradation products of biological objects and dust are removed from the cleaning zone together with an electrically conductive sterilizing liquid that forms a collecting electrode and filtered out. Instead of the contaminated electrically conductive sterilizing liquid, purified electrically conductive sterilizing liquid is periodically or continuously supplied to the cleaning area on the substrate-current lead. This prevents the disruption of the properties of the collecting electrode, increases the effective operation time of the device, and improves the productivity of the device.

Giving the current lead hydrophilic or hygroscopic properties ensures the operability of the device at different spatial positions of the liquid collecting electrode, which simplifies the practical implementation of the device.

The technical result of the proposed solution is achieved in that the device for cleaning and sterilizing air is characterized by the presence of a housing with a channel having an inlet and outlet for air passage and an electrostatic precipitator installed inside the channel, including a high voltage source, a thin corona electrode or electrodes for transferring an electric charge to a mechanical and biological particles and molecules, including bacteria and viruses, and a collecting electrode or electrodes of a large area located at some distance, on which recombination of attracted charged mechanical and biological particles occurs, characterized in that the collecting electrode is a layer of electrically conductive sterilizing liquid, and the device for air purification and sterilization, it is additionally equipped with a vessel with a supply of electrically conductive sterilizing liquid and equipment for permanent or periodic removal of biological particles contaminated with decomposition products and trapped mechanical particles of electrically conductive sterilizing liquid from said vessel, cleaning it and dispensing it into said layer. Also, in the device for purifying and sterilizing air, the liquid collecting electrode can be equipped with a metal substrate-current lead having a hydrophilic or hygroscopic coating to retain the electrically conductive sterilizing liquid. Also, in the device for purifying and sterilizing air, equipment for permanent or periodic removal of contaminated electrically conductive sterilizing liquid, its purification and dispensing may include a filter connected in series with pipelines for purifying a sterilizing electrically conductive liquid, a pump and collectors-sprayers installed in the upper part of the substrate for supplying the purified liquid to the layer of electrically conductive sterilizing liquid. Also, in the device for cleaning and sterilizing air for pumping air through a channel with an electrostatic precipitator in its inlet or outlet, a recirculation fan can be additionally installed.

The proposed device for cleaning and sterilizing air is illustrated in the figures in Figure 1 and Figure 2. Figure 1 shows a general diagram of the proposed device, and Figure 2 schematically shows the device of the collecting electrode.

The device for cleaning and sterilizing air is located in the housing 1, which has an inlet (not shown) and outlet 2 openings for the passage of cleaned air. The space between the inlet and outlet (2) openings forms a channel, an air purification zone. A discharge electrode or electrodes 4 and a collecting electrode or electrodes 5 are sequentially installed in it. The collecting electrode or electrodes 5 is a layer of electrically conductive sterilizing liquid. These electrodes 4 and 5 are connected to a high voltage source 3. In the lower part of the housing 1 is a vessel 6 with a supply of sterilizing electrically conductive liquid. The piping system 7 connects the vessel 6 with a series-connected pump 8 and a filter 9, which provide cleaning and circulation of the sterilizing electrically conductive liquid. In the inlet or outlet 2, a fan (not shown in the diagram) can additionally be installed to pump the air to be cleaned through the channel.

The device of the deposition electrode 5 is shown in enlargement in Figure 2. In the upper part of each electrode there is a collector-atomizer 11 with holes or a slot 12, which provides a laminar passage for the sterilizing electrically conductive liquid. The layer of liquid 10 flowing down the substrate-current lead 13 forms the actual deposition electrode 5. The surface of the current lead 13 has a hydrophilic or hygroscopic coating 14 for guaranteed contact with the liquid and the absence of dry zones.

The device works as follows. Mechanical particles, including pathogens, as well as partially the molecules of the components receive an electric charge in the zone of the corona electrode 4 and move in an electric field to the downstream collecting electrode 5. This movement forces the remaining air mass to move along the channel and a new portion of it enters the corona zone. discharge. Charged mechanical particles and molecules come into contact with a liquid collecting electrode 5, that is, in fact, with a layer of sterilizing electrically conductive liquid 10, give it their charge, but are not able to leave it due to the forces of surface tension of the liquid. Both free pathogens and pathogens on the surfaces of mechanical particles are destroyed. At the same time, due to the electrical conductivity of the liquid, a layer of charged particles is not created on the surface of the collecting electrode 5, preventing corona formation. The liquid 10 of the collecting electrode 5 flows into the vessel 6, carrying away the decomposition products of pathogens and the captured mechanical particles. The surface of the liquid in the vessel 6 can also serve as one or even the only deposition electrode 5.

The sterilizing electrically conductive liquid from the vessel 6 is pumped through the filter 9 with the help of a constantly or periodically operating pump 8, supplied to the manifolds - atomizers 11 and through the holes 12 is supplied to the substrate 13 to form a renewed purified liquid layer of the deposition electrode 5.

The installation of an additional fan in the inlet or outlet 2 of housing 1 complements the electronic wind created by the corona discharge, carries away charged particles from the corona, thereby increasing the discharge current and the productivity of the installation.

The novelty and inventive level of the proposed invention lies in the fact that in the device for purifying and sterilizing air, unlike its analogues, its collecting electrode is made in the form of a layer of electrically conductive sterilizing liquid and at the same time combines the functions of electrostatic filtration of contaminants from the air, chemical sterilization of biological objects and removing them from the cleaning area of the device. The proposed technical solution is a full-fledged device that effectively and continuously purifies the air using an electrostatic precipitator from mechanical particles (dust, particles of harmful substances) and, at the same time, its effective chemical liquid sterilization from pathogens (fungi, spores, bacteria, viruses, prions, and other microorganisms ), and also expands the arsenal of devices and methods for cleaning, disinfection and sterilization of air using the electrostatic effect. The proposed technical solution can be realized both as a separate device for purifying and sterilizing air in an apartment, hospital ward, doctor's office, and as part of an industrial air purification system for public buildings, etc.

The proposed device for purifying and sterilizing air is currently being prepared for industrial production.

Claims (4)

1. A device for purifying and sterilizing air, comprising a housing with a channel having an inlet and outlet for air passage, a high voltage source and an electrostatic precipitator installed inside the channel, including a corona electrode or electrodes for transferring an electrical charge to mechanical and biological particles and molecules, bacteria and viruses, and a collecting electrode or electrodes located at a distance, on which the attracted charged mechanical and biological particles recombine, characterized in that the collecting electrode is a layer of electrically conductive sterilizing liquid, and the device for air purification and sterilization is additionally equipped with a vessel with a supply of electrically conductive sterilizing liquid and equipment for continuous or periodic removal of contaminated with decomposition products of biological particles and entrained mechanical particles of electrically conductive sterilizing liquid from said layer, its purification and dosages data feed into the said layer. 2. A device for purifying and sterilizing air according to claim 1, characterized in that the liquid collecting electrode is equipped with a metal substrate-current lead having a hydrophilic or hygroscopic coating for holding the electrically conductive sterilizing liquid. 3. A device for purifying and sterilizing air according to claim 2, characterized in that the equipment for permanent or periodic removal of contaminated electrically conductive sterilizing liquid, its purification and dispensing includes a filter connected in series with pipelines for purifying a sterilizing electrically conductive liquid, a pump and installed in the upper part of the substrate-current supply collector-sprayers for supplying the purified liquid to the layer of electrically conductive sterilizing liquid. 4. A device for cleaning and sterilizing air according to any one of paragraphs. 1-3, characterized in that a recirculation fan is additionally installed in its inlet or outlet to pump air through the said channel with an electrostatic precipitator.

Images