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Corona source for producing corona discharge and fluid waste treatment with corona discharge
| Details |
Inventors: Gregoire, Daniel J.; Harvey, Robin J.; Dolezal, Franklin A.; Williamson, Weldon S.;
Assignee: Hughes Aircraft Company (Los Angeles, CA)
Primary Examiner: Niebling; John
Assistant Examiner: Mayekar; Kishor
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Duraiswamy; V. D., Denson-Low; W. K.
A corona source suitable for use in vehicle ignition systems uses a conductive coil that receives an RF input at one end and has a corona discharge site at the other end, with a reference electrode capacitively coupled to the coil. The pitch and the length of the coil are selected to produce a corona discharge in response to an RF input signal at a predetermined frequency and voltage, through quarter wavelength resonation. Either the new resonant coil or other corona discharge devices can be used to remediate fluid-borne wastes by initiating and sustaining RF corona discharges within the fluid. The pulses used to initiate the corona discharge preferably have alternating positive and negative components, with high initial voltages on the positive components to initiate the discharge, followed by lower positive voltage levels to sustain the discharge. Unipolar pulses, preferably with progressively decreasing voltage levels, can also be used. |
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention seeks to provide an improved liquid waste treatment technique that avoids the drawbacks of chemical treatment, has a wider range of application than UV treatment, is less expensive than thermal treatment, and is operable at lower energy levels than electron beam treatment systems.
This is accomplished with an RF corona discharge system.
In a related vein, the invention further seeks to provide an improved RF corona discharge mechanism that can be used for both liquid waste and exhaust gas treatment and in vehicle ignition systems, and is substantially smaller than previous devices.
Liquid waste treatment, or other chemical reactions, are achieved with the invention by initiating an RF corona discharge within a liquid, and sustaining the discharge at a level and for a duration sufficient to induce the desired chemical reaction, such as breaking down hydrocarbon waste materials.
In the preferred embodiment, RF actuating pulses are applied to a corona discharge electrode within the liquid.
An efficient operation is achieved by providing the pulses with alternating positive and negative components to initiate a corona discharge at a high potential, and then draw corona energy out from the fluid before arcing occurs.
Various pulse forms can be used, such as positive pulse components that have high initial voltages to initiate the corona discharge followed by lower voltages to sustain the discharge, pulses at a single RF frequency, and pulses formed from a range of signals at different RF frequencies that are superimposed to provide the pulses with non-sinusoidal shapes.
Unipolar pulses can also be used, in which case efficiency is enhanced by spacing the pulses close enough together so that their peak voltages can be progressively reduced.
A corona discharge site is provided that establishes an electric field greater than about 30 to 100 kV/cm with an applied voltage of less than about 50 kV; this is sufficient to initiate the desired corona discharge
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Manufacturing Materials 
