Reducing environmental radon

• US 10,236,089 B1
• Filed: 09/11/2017
• Issued: 03/19/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 09/11/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Arvin, Charles L., Gordon, Michael S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vanore, David A
• Application Number:
  US15/700,831
• Publication Number:
  US 20190080809A1
• Time in Patent Office: 554 Days
• Field of Search: 422122, 95 69, 95 70, 96 55
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2257/11 Noble gases
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2258/06 Polluted air
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 2259/4508 for cleaning air in buildings
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 49/00 Separating dispersed particles from gases, air or vapours by other methods
• CPC Class Codes: B01D 53/0407 Constructional details of adsorbing systems
• CPC Class Codes: G21F 1/12 Laminated shielding materials
• CPC Class Codes: G21F 3/02 Clothing
• CPC Class Codes: G21F 5/06 Details of, or accessories to, the containers
• CPC Class Codes: G21F 9/02 Treating gases

Abstract

A method is presented for collecting and removing radon from a confined area, a storage box or articles of clothing. The method includes collecting radon from the confined area or around a storage box via at least one collector, connecting each of a plurality of radon adsorbers to a corresponding power supply or power source such as a battery, capacitor, fuel cell, etc. diverting, via a plurality of valves, the collected radon or radon daughters through one or more of the plurality of radon adsorbers, and receiving, via a plurality of radon storage units, radon or radon daughters held by the plurality of radon adsorbers for a predetermined period of time.

Claims

1. A system or storage box for collecting and removing radon daughters from a confined area, the system comprising:

at least one collector for collecting radon daughters from the confined area;

a plurality of radon adsorbers each connected to a corresponding power supply;

a plurality of valves for diverting the collected radon daughters through one or more of the plurality of radon adsorbers; and

a plurality of radon storage units for receiving radon daughters held by the plurality of radon adsorbers for a predetermined period of time.

2. The system in claim 1, wherein the radon adsorbers are mesh layers.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein the mesh layers are any materials capable of carrying a charge, such as, but not limited to metals, conductive oxides, and semiconductors.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein each of the mesh layers are biased by the corresponding power supply.

5. The system of claim 3, wherein at least one of the mesh layers is negatively biased to attract the collected radon daughters and in the case of the storage container, at one additional mesh layer surrounding top and sides of the box is positively biased to repulse the radon daughters from the contents stored inside.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the plurality of radon storage units are zeolite chambers.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the zeolite chambers include a first zeolite chamber and a second zeolite chamber.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the radon daughters held by the plurality of radon adsorbers are transferred to zeolite chambers by reversing polarity of the corresponding power supply.