Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting – deodorizing – preser – For deodorizing of – or chemical purification of – or... – With means exposing gas to electromagnetic wave energy or...
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-20
2001-02-13
Thornton, Krisanne (Department: 1744)
Chemical apparatus and process disinfecting, deodorizing, preser
For deodorizing of, or chemical purification of, or...
With means exposing gas to electromagnetic wave energy or...
C096S016000, C096S069000, C096S223000, C096S225000, C422S022000, C422S122000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06187271
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrostatic precipitator, and more particularly, to an electrostatic precipitator, in which a photo-catalyst technology is utilized for sterilization and deodorization.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In general, the electrostatic precipitator collects and removes solid state, and liquid state particles floating in a gas.
FIG. 1
illustrates a section of a background art electrostatic precipitator, with reference to which the background art electrostatic precipitator will be explained.
The background art electrostatic precipitator is provided with a body
10
having an intake grill
12
and a discharge grill
14
, and filters
20
,
30
, and
100
and fan
16
mounted inside of the body
10
. In the filters, there are a pre-filter
20
at rear of the intake grill
12
for primary filtering of dusts from intake air, an electrostatic precipitating part
100
at rear of the pre-filter
20
for electrical removal of dusts, deodorizing filter
30
at rear of the electrostatic precipitating part
100
for removal of odor in air.
The foregoing electrostatic precipitator will be explained in detail with reference to FIG.
2
. The electrostatic precipitating part
100
is provided with the discharge unit
110
for charging dusts and the like in air, and the collecting unit
130
for collecting the dusts charged in the discharge unit
110
. In detail, the body
10
has a discharge unit case
112
and holders
114
on both sides of the discharge unit case
112
. And, there are a plurality of ground electrodes
116
fitted to the holders
114
at fixed intervals, and a plurality of discharge electrodes
118
between the ground electrodes
116
. And, the body
10
has a collecing case
132
which has a plurality of collecting electrodes
134
fitted thereto at fixed intervals for acting as ground electrodes, and there are a plurality of positive electrodes
136
between the collecting electrodes
134
. A plurality of projections
138
may be provided on top of both the collecting electrodes
134
and the positive electrodes
136
for maintaining a gap between the electrode plates
134
and
136
. The collecting electrodes
134
and the positive electrodes
136
are conductors, such as conductive paint or aluminum foil. Resin of a good insulating property is coated or bonded on the conductors.
At time, there is a metal mesh(not shown) between a discharge unit
110
and a collecting unit
130
for minimizing electric field interference between the discharge unit
110
and the collecting unit
130
.
In the meantime, there are a “−” voltage applying terminal
142
and a “+” voltage applying terminal
144
; the “−” voltage applying terminal
142
is connected to the ground electrodes
1
16
in the discharge unit
110
and the collecting electrodes
134
in the collecting unit
130
, and the “+” voltage applying terminal
144
is connected to the discharge electrodes
118
and the positive electrodes
136
.
The operation of the background art electrostatic precipitator will be explained with reference to
FIGS. 1 and 2
.
Upon application of power to the electrostatic precipitator, the fan
16
is put into operation to cause outside air to flow into the body
10
through the intake grill
12
. The air is primarily filtrated of comparatively large sized dusts as the air passes through the prefilter
20
and flows to the discharge unit
110
. As the ground electrodes
116
and the discharge electrodes
118
in the discharge unit
110
are at application of voltage, a corona discharge occurred between the ground electrodes
116
and the discharge electrodes
118
, charging dust particles flowed in the discharge unit
110
. The dusts charged in the discharge unit
110
continues to flow toward the collecting unit
130
, where, as the charged dusts are charged of “+”, a repulsive force is acted between the dusts and the positive electrodes
136
having a “+” voltage applied thereto, and an attracting force is acted between the dusts and the collecting electrodes
134
having a “−” voltage applied thereto. Accordingly, the charged dusts are accelerated toward the collecting electrodes
134
, being collected at the collecting electrodes
134
at last. The air, passed through the collecting unit
130
finally, is removed of odors in the air as the air passes through the deodorizing filter
30
of active carbon, to become clean air, which is discharge through the discharge grill
14
. However, the background art electrostatic precipitator can not remove harmfull microbes contained in the air, and has a poor deodorizing performance, causing a problem that the harmful microbes are discharged into a room without being filtrated, or accumulated on electrode plates in the collecting unit
130
and decomposes to give out bad smell.
To cope with this problem, so called photo-catalyst technology is developed, in which a substance (hereafter called “photo-catalyst”) adapted to be activated by a photo-energy to have sterilizing and deodorizing capability is used, of which typical photo-catalyst is titanium oxide TiO
2
. The photo-catalyst like titanium oxide has an excellent adsorption power to organic substances and is excited when exposed to a photo energy to form various forms of radical, which sterilizes microbes by a strong oxidation power and, on the same time, decomposes substances giving out bad smells in reaction with the radical.
This may be explained in detail referring to
FIG. 3
as follows.
When a photo-energy emitted from an UV lamp and the like is directed onto a photo-catalyst, an electron in a valence band is transited to a conduction band, generating an electron and a hole. As these electron and hole have very strong oxidizing and reducing power, these electron and hole make reaction with water vapor H
2
O or oxygen O
2
in air, to produce active oxygens, such as OH radical, H radical, and super oxide n ion O
2
−
. And, as these radicals have strong bonding forces to other components, these radicals break bonding of substances giving a bad smell, thereby making deodorization. That is, as OH radical breaks bonding of an organic substance which causes an odor and makes a direct bonding with the organic substance, leaving water vapor and carbon dioxide finally, the odor is removed. And, as OH radical has a strong oxidizing power which sterilizes microbes, OH radical can sterilize microbes. When the electron or hole make a direct bonding with organic substance, the direct bonding breaks bonding of the organic substance, changing the organic substance to another form of radical. And, the another form of radical breaks a bonding of another organic substance, to form water vapor and carbon dioxide at the end, thereby making deodorization. Thus, by proceeding the foregoing process, sterilization and deodorization can be made.
PCT application(PCT/US 96/14204) discloses a filter coated with a photo-catalyst and a UV lamp which activates the aforementioned photo-catalyst. However, the technologies on sterilization and deodorization using photo-catalyst known up to now have the following problems.
First, as a photo-energy is required for exciting a photo-catalyst as titanium oxide, a separate photo-energy source for generating such a photo-energy has been required additionally. That is, the UV lamp and the like used additionally as the photo-energy source increases components in the electrostatic precipitator, making the electrostatic precipitator to have a complicated structure and to cost high.
Second, the UV lamp or filter coated with photo-catalyst mounted in air stream make resistance to air flow, which causes a pressure loss of the air flow.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to an electrostatic precipitator that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide an electrostatic precipitator which has a simple structure and
Heo Kyeng Wook
Hong Young Ki
Kang Jung Hun
Kang Kwang Ok
Lee Sung Hwa
Fleshner & Kim LLP
LG Electronics Inc.
Thornton Krisanne
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