High Pressure Pulsed Avalanche Discharges: Scaling Of Required Preionization Rate For Homogeneity

Abstract

An Advanced Ionizer for Atmospheric Plasma Mark Rader and Igor Alexeff University of Tennessee The production of ions by corona in air has been improved by a factor of 10 without either increasing the voltage or reducing the electrode gap spacing. This improvement has been accomplished by noting that the corona process occurs in a very limited spatial region around the corona points or wires. By replacing the air in this limited region by a feed of nonelectronegative gas such as argon, nitrogen, or helium, the local production of ions is greatly enhanced. Once these ions flow into the surrounding air, they cannot recombine unless they find ions of the opposite charge. Thus the ions flow freely across large air gaps. A n . additional advantage of the local gas feed system is that the ionization occurs locally, and processes in the surrounding air that produce sparkover do not occur. The use of these improved ionizers in electrostatic precipitators should result in enhanced pollution removal, and a patent is pending.