Project: Purifair
Project name: PURIFAIR
Subject: Sub-nanosecond pulsed power air purification: exploring the limits
Start date: January 1, 2017
End date: January 1, 2019
Coordinator: SIAME
Scientific manager at the SIAME: Laurent PECASTAING
Permanent members of the SIAME involved: Marc RIVALETTO, Antoine SILVESTRE de FERRON
Type of contract: Hubert Curien partnership (PHC Van Gogh)
Partner(s): Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands (Tom HUISKAMP)
Project description
Regulations concerning air pollution for the industry and the transportation sector are increasingly stringent to contribute to a cleaner environment. Transient plasma systems are a promising technology for fighting against air pollution. Recent research conducted in the Netherlands showed that by using sub-nanosecond high-voltage pulses to generate the plasma significantly increased the efficiency of this technology making it a viable alternative to existing solutions, which present major drawbacks. It was demonstrated that the key parameter for improving efficiency was to achieve a very short pulse rise time. This inevitably led to the question: where is the limit? Could efficiency be further improved by reducing rise times even more?
This is the aspect we will be looking at as part of the Hubert Curien partnership (PHC Van Gogh) carried out with the Electrical Engineering department of the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands. To answer these questions, the voltage gradient of the sources will need to be optimized.
The very high voltage gradient prototype developed as part of the project is to be associated with a fusion reactor developed by the team in Eindhoven. The aim of experiments is to answer the crucial question mentioned above, i.e. finding the limit to minimizing rise times to continue to increase the efficiency of transient plasma systems for purifying air. A wide range of chemical diagnoses is available in Eindhoven to evaluate air purification efficiency, including Fourier-Transform Infrared spectrometry (FT-IR), Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS), and Gas Chromatography (GC) with Flame Ionization Detection (FID) or Thermal Conductivity Detection (TCD).
