EXP[2016]SPR045°
ENERGY CONTROL IN ELECTRO-SPRAY, ELECTRO-DISTILLATION AND
ELECTRIC WIND APPLICATIONS, AN INNOVATION RESUME.
Rein A. Roos* and Jan Marijnissen**
Summary: Innovation is often confused with invention, Broos, 2016. [1] Innovation is in fact standing on the
shoulders and using bright ideas of our ancestors. This is done here for 17
th
century electrical phenomena like
electro spray and electric wind by bringing them back into service through harnessing the problems encountered
when operating in modern hazardous environments.
Correspondence
*Rein André Roos, Re(c)entre, 6 La Pichotière, 61340 Perche en Nocé, France.
Email: rein.andre.roos@gmail.com
** Jan Marijnissen, Aerosolconsultancy, Zaart 11, 4819ED Breda, The Netherlands,
jan.marijnissen@aerosolconsultancy.nl
°Related to article ([EXP-A 2016])
ELECTROSTATIC APPLICATIONS
Theuse of electrospray, powered by a
high voltage source, also called by some electro
hydrodynamic atomization, electric or corona
wind and electrodistillation are gaining
popularity in water treatment, air pollution
control, printing, agriculture, medicine, mining
etc.
HAZARDOUS ENVIRONMENT
In hazardous environments, by using
electrospray or other electrostatic applications
needing the presence of a high voltage can be a
problem especially when used under explosive
circumstances. In that case it is often a needed
to make the unit “Intrinsically Safe”.
Intrinsically Safe means a design
intention of limiting the available electrical
energy to such a level that sparks cannot occur
from either short circuit or other failueres able to
ignite an explosive atmosphere.
Such circuits uses often a temperature
sensor located within the explosive area, which
is protected by a safety barrier made up of a
series of (zener) diodes, resistors and fuses.
These are arranged and dimensioned in such a
way that the energy supplied to the device
remains limited.
A similar approach is needed for
electrostatic high voltage related applications,
however the construction of a safety barrier as is
typical for intrinsically safe devices is difficult to
realize from the point of view of the very small
currents and the relatively high voltages
involved.
LIMITATION OF HV ENERGY
So the energy supplied to the device
using electrostatic applications, has to be
controlled in another way. Such a method has
already been used in case of an electrospray
application by Stachewicz, 2010. [2] It is done
by using single event electrospraying (SEE)
This SEE is a method for on-demand
deposition of picoliters volumes of liquids, by
using a stable pulsed cone-jet mode. The pulse is
produced by a special pulse generator coupled to
a supply acting as source for a bias voltage. The
whole supply section can be designed to be
Intrinsically Safe.
SPARK ONSET DETECTION
Another approach is to look at the onset
of the spark. This happens when the Townsend
multiplication current increases in a discharge
gap configuration like that of the point plane or
wire plane in such way that it enters the visible
light and UV radiating corona region.
Interesting is the UVC emission, which is
considered to be non existent in the Earth
atmosphere at sea level. However measurements
carried out by Roos, 1996 [3] shows that modern
halogen lamps, even the one at your bedside, are
also able to produce radiations in this wave
length.
So if one would detect the onset of a
spark by means of UVC radiation one has to be
sure that no intervention is produced through the
© 2016 J.ofElectrostaticReorientationVol. 1, N° 1, section EPL-01, Page 1