Gas scrubbing process and apparatus
First Claim
1. Process for cleaning contaminants from a gas stream of flowing gas, which said gas may be air, and which said contaminants may be particulates and may be gaseous contaminants, comprising the steps of:
- (a) Intimately mixing said gas stream with a copious quantity of positively charged liquid droplets, hereafter “
positive droplets”
, by injecting said positive droplets into said gas stream, and by providing said positive droplets with a combination of size, charge magnitude, positive droplet production rate and length of travel of said positive droplets in said gas, so as to cause said positive droplets to adsorb at least about 99% of said contaminants which are said particulates initially having negative charges, and at least about 90% of said particulates which are initially neutral, and to absorb at least about 90% of said contaminants which are said gaseous contaminants;
(b) Removing at least about 99% of said positive droplets having diameters greater than 50 microns from said gas stream, along with all of said contaminants which have been adsorbed and absorbed by said positive droplets;
(c) Positively charging at least about 99.9% of said particulates which were neutral at inception of said positive charging of said particulates;
(d) Intimately mixing said gas stream with a copious quantity of negatively charged liquid droplets, hereafter “
negative droplets”
, by injecting said negative droplets into said gas stream, and by providing said negative droplets with a combination of size, charge magnitude, negative droplet production rate and length of travel of said negative droplets in said gas, so as to cause said negative droplets to adsorb at least about 99.9% of said contaminants which are said particulates having positive charges; and
(e) Removing at least about 99.9% of said negative droplets from said gas stream, along with all of said contaminants which have been adsorbed and absorbed by said negative droplets.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Process and apparatus for gas cleaning, as in HVAC systems or semiconductor manufacturing clean rooms, for removing 99.999% of particulate and gaseous contaminants, which may be effectively used to remove and neutralize Bio-chem agents introduced by terrorists, having a first stage in which large quantities of positively charged liquid droplets are introduced into the gas to be cleaned so as to remove virtually all negatively charged particulates and at least 90% of neutral particulates and soluble gases; a second stage in which most positively charged droplets from the first stage are removed and remaining particulates are given a positive charge; a third stage in which large quantities of negatively charged liquid droplets are introduced to remove positively charged particulates and more soluble gas contaminants; and a fourth stage in which the negatively charged droplets are removed from the cleaned gas stream.
41 Citations
25 Claims
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1. Process for cleaning contaminants from a gas stream of flowing gas, which said gas may be air, and which said contaminants may be particulates and may be gaseous contaminants, comprising the steps of:
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(a) Intimately mixing said gas stream with a copious quantity of positively charged liquid droplets, hereafter “
positive droplets”
, by injecting said positive droplets into said gas stream, and by providing said positive droplets with a combination of size, charge magnitude, positive droplet production rate and length of travel of said positive droplets in said gas, so as to cause said positive droplets to adsorb at least about 99% of said contaminants which are said particulates initially having negative charges, and at least about 90% of said particulates which are initially neutral, and to absorb at least about 90% of said contaminants which are said gaseous contaminants;(b) Removing at least about 99% of said positive droplets having diameters greater than 50 microns from said gas stream, along with all of said contaminants which have been adsorbed and absorbed by said positive droplets; (c) Positively charging at least about 99.9% of said particulates which were neutral at inception of said positive charging of said particulates; (d) Intimately mixing said gas stream with a copious quantity of negatively charged liquid droplets, hereafter “
negative droplets”
, by injecting said negative droplets into said gas stream, and by providing said negative droplets with a combination of size, charge magnitude, negative droplet production rate and length of travel of said negative droplets in said gas, so as to cause said negative droplets to adsorb at least about 99.9% of said contaminants which are said particulates having positive charges; and(e) Removing at least about 99.9% of said negative droplets from said gas stream, along with all of said contaminants which have been adsorbed and absorbed by said negative droplets. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. Process for cleaning contaminants from a gas stream of flowing gas, which said gas may be air, and which said contaminants may be particulates and may be gaseous contaminants, comprising the steps of:
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(a) Intimately mixing said gas stream with a copious quantity of negatively charged liquid droplets, hereafter “
negative droplets”
, by injecting said negative droplets into said gas stream, and by providing said negative droplets with a combination of size, charge magnitude, negative droplet production rate and length of travel of said negative droplets in said gas, so as to cause said negative droplets to adsorb at least about 99% of said contaminants which are said particulates initially having positive charges, and at least about 90% of said particulates which are initially neutral, and to absorb at least about 90% of said contaminants which are said gaseous contaminants;(b) Removing at least about 99% of said negative droplets having diameters greater than 50 microns from said gas stream, along with all of said contaminants which have been adsorbed and absorbed by said positive droplets; (c) Negatively charging at least about 99.9% of said particulates which were neutral at inception of said negative charging of said particulates; (d) Intimately mixing said gas stream with a copious quantity of positively charged liquid droplets, hereafter “
positive droplets”
, by injecting said positive droplets into said gas stream, and by providing said positive droplets with a combination of size, charge magnitude, positive droplet production rate and length of travel of said positive droplets in said gas, so as to cause said positive droplets to adsorb at least about 99.9% of said contaminants which are said particulates having negative charges; and(e) Removing at least about 99.9% of said positive droplets from said gas stream, along with all of said contaminants which have been adsorbed and absorbed by said negative droplets.
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9. Apparatus for cleaning contaminants from a gas stream of flowing gas, said flowing gas having a flow direction defining a downstream direction, which said gas may be air, and which said contaminants may be particulates and may be gaseous contaminants, comprising:
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(a) A first droplet injection means, immersed in said gas stream, for intimately mixing said gas stream with a copious quantity of positively charged liquid droplets, hereafter “
positive droplets”
, by injecting said positive droplets into said gas stream, and by providing said positive droplets with a combination of size, charge magnitude, positive droplet production rate and length of travel of said positive droplets in said gas, so as to cause said positive droplets to adsorb at least about 99% of said contaminants which are said particulates initially having negative charges, and at least about 90% of said particulates which are initially neutral, and to absorb at least about 90% of said contaminants which are said gaseous contaminants;(b) A first droplet removal means, immersed in said gas stream downstream from said first droplet injection means, at a location sufficiently downstream from said first droplet injection means to allow said positive droplets to have achieved the desired interaction with said contaminants before reaching said first droplet removal means, for removing at least about 99% of said positive droplets having diameters greater than 50 microns from said gas stream, along with all of said contaminants which have been adsorbed and absorbed by said positive droplets; (c) A positive charging means, immersed in said gas stream downstream from said first droplet removal means, for positively charging at least about 99.9% of said particulates which were neutral just before reaching said positive charging means; (d) A second droplet injection means, immersed in said gas stream downstream from said positive charging means, for intimately mixing said gas stream with a copious quantity of negatively charged liquid droplets, hereafter “
negative droplets”
, by injecting said negative droplets into said gas stream, and by providing said negative droplets with a combination of size, charge magnitude, negative droplet production rate and length of travel of said negative droplets in said gas, so as to cause said negative droplets to adsorb at least about 99.9% of said contaminants which are said particulates having positive charges; and(e) A second droplet removal means, immersed in said gas stream downstream from said second droplet injection means, at a location sufficiently downstream from said second droplet injection means to allow said negative droplets to have achieved the desired interaction with said contaminants which are said particulates having positive charges, before reaching said second droplet removal means, for removing at least about 99.9% of said negative droplets from said gas stream, along with all of said contaminants which have been adsorbed and absorbed by said negative droplets. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. Apparatus for cleaning contaminants from a gas stream of flowing gas, said flowing gas having a flow direction defining a downstream direction, which said gas may be air, and which said contaminants may be particulates and may be gaseous contaminants, comprising:
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(a) A first droplet injection means, immersed in said gas stream, for intimately mixing said gas stream with a copious quantity of negatively charged liquid droplets, hereafter “
negative droplets”
, by injecting said negative droplets into said gas stream, and by providing said negative droplets with a combination of size, charge magnitude, negative droplet production rate and length of travel of said negative droplets in said gas, so as to cause said negative droplets to adsorb at least about 99% of said contaminants which are said particulates initially having positive charges, and at least about 90% of said particulates which are initially neutral, and to absorb at least about 90% of said contaminants which are said gaseous contaminants;(b) A first droplet removal means, immersed in said gas stream downstream from said first droplet injection means, at a location sufficiently downstream from said first droplet injection means to allow said negative droplets to have achieved the desired interaction with said contaminants before reaching said first droplet removal means, for removing at least about 99% of said negative droplets having diameters greater than 50 microns from said gas stream, along with all of said contaminants which have been adsorbed and absorbed by said negative droplets; (c) A negative charging means, immersed in said gas stream downstream from said first droplet removal means, for negatively charging at least about 99.9% of said particulates which were neutral just before reaching said negative charging means; (d) A second droplet injection means, immersed in said gas stream downstream from said negative charging means, for intimately mixing said gas stream with a copious quantity of positively charged liquid droplets, hereafter “
positive droplets”
, by injecting said positive droplets into said gas stream, and by providing said positive droplets with a combination of size, charge magnitude, positive droplet production rate and length of travel of said positive droplets in said gas, so as to cause said positive droplets to adsorb at least about 99.9% of said contaminants which are said particulates having negative charges; and(e) A second droplet removal means, immersed in said gas stream downstream from said second droplet injection means, at a location sufficiently downstream from said second droplet injection means to allow said positive droplets to have achieved the desired interaction with said contaminants which are said particulates having negative charges, before reaching said second droplet removal means, for removing at least about 99.9% of said positive droplets from said gas stream, along with all of said contaminants which have been adsorbed and absorbed by said negative droplets.
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20. Process for cleaning contaminants from a gas stream of flowing gas, which said gas may be air, and which said contaminants may be particulates and may be gaseous contaminants, comprising:
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(a) A step for mixing said gas stream with positively charged liquid droplets, hereafter “
positive droplets”
, and for causing said positive droplets to adsorb at least about 99% of said contaminants which are said particulates initially having negative charges, and at least about 90% of said particulates which are initially neutral, and to absorb at least about 90% of said contaminants which are said gaseous contaminants;(b) A step for removing at least about 99% of said positive droplets having diameters greater than 50 microns from said gas stream, along with all of said contaminants which have been adsorbed and absorbed by said positive droplets; (c) A step for positively charging at least about 99.9% of said particulates which were neutral at inception of said positively charging step; (d) A step for mixing said gas stream with a copious quantity of negatively charged liquid droplets, hereafter “
negative droplets”
, and for causing said negative droplets to adsorb at least about 99.9% of said contaminants which are said particulates having positive charges; and(e) A step for removing at least about 99.9% of said negative droplets from said gas stream, along with all of said contaminants which have been adsorbed and absorbed by said negative droplets. - View Dependent Claims (21)
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22. Process for cleaning contaminants from a gas stream of flowing gas, which said gas may be air, and which said contaminants may be particulates and may be gaseous contaminants, comprising:
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(a) A step for mixing said gas stream with negatively charged liquid droplets, hereafter “
negative droplets”
, and for causing said negative droplets to adsorb at least about 99% of said contaminants which are said particulates initially having positive charges, and at least about 90% of said particulates which are initially neutral, and to absorb at least about 90% of said contaminants which are said gaseous contaminants;(b) A step for removing at least about 99% of said negative droplets having diameters greater than 50 microns from said gas stream, along with all of said contaminants which have been adsorbed and absorbed by said positive droplets; (c) A step for negatively charging at least about 99.9% of said particulates which were neutral at inception of said negatively charging step; (d) A step for mixing said gas stream with a copious quantity of positively charged liquid droplets, hereafter “
positive droplets”
, and for causing said positive droplets to adsorb at least about 99.9% of said contaminants which are said particulates having negative charges; and(e) A step for removing at least about 99.9% of said positive droplets from said gas stream, along with all of said contaminants which have been adsorbed and absorbed by said negative droplets. - View Dependent Claims (23)
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24. Process for cleaning contaminants from a gas stream of flowing gas, which said gas may be air, and which said contaminants may be particulates and may be gaseous contaminants, comprising:
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(a) alternate steps for mixing said gas stream with charged liquid droplets of opposite charge polarities, and for removing said charged droplets from said gas stream after said mixing; and (b) at least one step for charging uncharged particulates in said gas stream to an induced particulate charge polarity, just prior to a step of mixing of said gas stream with charged liquid droplets of a charge polarity opposite to said induced particulate charge polarity. - View Dependent Claims (25)
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Specification