Modular Flow-Through Purification Device with Excimer Lamp
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing flow-through fluid purification devices for producing pure or ultra-pure water are costly, complex, and require extensive maintenance, with mercury-based UV lamps posing environmental hazards and inefficiencies due to incomplete purification and high manufacturing costs.
Innovation Solution
A modular flow-through purification device with a container formed by axially connected cylinder parts, allowing for easy assembly and maintenance, using an excimer lamp as a mercury-free radiation source, and baffles to ensure uniform fluid exposure to UV radiation, optimizing TOC reduction and purification efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If mercury-based UV lamps are used for fluid purification, then purification capability is achieved, but environmental hazards and maintenance complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the harmful mercury component from the UV lamp system and replaces it with a mercury-free excimer lamp that uses noble gases (xenon, krypton, or argon) instead, eliminating environmental hazards while maintaining purification capability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the operational parameters of the UV lamp by using excimer technology with noble gas fillings at specific pressures (0.1-10 bar) and wavelengths (146nm for krypton, 172nm for xenon, 121nm for argon), achieving effective purification without mercury
2Reliability
If excimer lamp with wavelength shifting coating is used, then water purification is achieved, but cost and device complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the problematic wavelength-shifting coating from the excimer lamp design, allowing the lamp to emit its native wavelength directly into the water, eliminating the additional component and its associated complexity and degradation issues
Solution Approach 2:
The patent achieves the purification effect directly through the excimer lamp's native emission wavelength, eliminating the need for an intermediate coating layer that copies or transforms the wavelength, thereby simplifying the device structure
3Device complexity
If fluid flows through purification device with large distances from radiation source, then device simplicity is maintained, but purification completeness decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a baffle system that creates turbulence and sinusoidal flow patterns in the fluid, causing the fluid to oscillate and repeatedly pass near the radiation source, thereby increasing exposure effectiveness without requiring the fluid to maintain a consistently small distance from the source throughout the entire flow path
Solution Approach 2:
The baffle-induced sinusoidal flow creates periodic motion where fluid elements repeatedly approach and recede from the radiation source, ensuring multiple exposure opportunities during transit through the purification device
4Ease of manufacture
If modular cylinder parts are used for container assembly, then ease of manufacture and maintenance improve, but assembly complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the container into multiple axially arranged, identical or similar cylinder parts that can be independently manufactured and then assembled through welding, allowing for flexible manufacturing and easy replacement of individual sections while maintaining overall structural integrity
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The modular design reduces production and maintenance costs, ensures high purification efficiency, and effectively reduces TOC levels in water, while avoiding the hazards of mercury-based lamps and improving the capacity to ionize complex organics.
Implementation Method 1
an excimer lamp arranged to emit radiation with a wavelength between 150nm and 200nm
Implementation Method 2
The purification, to which the present invention pertains, aims at reducing the TOC content in the fluid flowing through the device through organic oxidizing reactions induced by the UV-C radiation
Implementation Method 3
The oxidizing reaction includes an intermediate step of decomposing water molecules into different reactive intermediates including radical, neutral and ionic intermediates
Data Source
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Figure 2
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AI summary
A flow through fluid purification device (1) comprising a container (5) arranged such that fluid can flow through a volume (8) of the container (5) from an inlet (3) to an outlet (7), and an inner cylinder (10a) inserted or insertable into the volume (8) of the container (5) and defining an interface wall (11) permeable for radiation with a wavelength in the UV-range, preferably between 150nm and 200nm, wherein the container (5) includes plurality of axially arranged cylinder parts (5b,5c,5d,5e) connected to each other by welding to form an outer cylinder assembly (5a).