OAUGDP was developed at the University of Tennessee. It is a
non-thermal glow discharge that operates in air (and other gases) at room
temperature and atmospheric pressure. My project is to research the OAUGDP and
simulate an equivalent circuit of the glow plasma discharge with PSPICE. It is
only a simulation of the discharge so it has no regulations except for
copyright laws of the used published material and software for the research.
Even if the discharge equivalent circuit is to be build there are no
regulations other than the health/safety rules of the department’s laboratory
as the OAUGDP is operated in air, without the use of vacuum, and at a voltage
of 10V. Despite my thorough search for relevant regulations of OAUGDP the only
regulation I could find was about high voltage operation - ISBN
978-0-626-21281-0, NRS 040-5:2007. Since industrial generation of glow
discharge plasma involves the use of voltages in the scope of 1-10kV.
More economical and ecologically friendly technologies are
sought today by representatives of many industrial sectors to meet new
sustainable regulations and competitive pressure. Glow discharge plasma uses
air as a working gas at an atmospheric pressure and room temperature -
resource-efficient. The majority of industrial plasma processing is done with
glow discharges at pressures below 10 torr. This tends to limit such
applications to high-value items, as a result of the high capital cost of
vacuum systems and the production constraints of batch processing.
Some of the advantages of the industrial use of OAUGDP
technology are:
1. Plasma methods
can accomplish results more efficiently and cheaply than competing technologies
- Non-thermal and non-water cleansing,
purification and sterilization
2. Plasma can
perform tasks that can be accomplished in no other way
-
Fluorescent lamp based on the OAUGDP, which requires neither a vacuum nor the
use of mercury. Thin films are made only with plasma methods.
3. Plasma
processes usually accomplish results without producing large volumes of
unwanted by-products or waste materials
- Plasma
has no emissions, does not require consumables to operate and it does not
generate harmful by-products
4. Plasma
processes usually accomplish results without producing significant quantities
of toxic wastes
- OAUGDP
generates ozone which dissolves in the air over a short period of time (1-2hrs)
The above characteristics of plasma and the glow discharge
plasma in particular, have always been advantageous. They are becoming
increasingly essential in the current, progressively stricter regulatory
atmosphere, and in an international competitive environment in which the United
Kingdom must rely on its advanced technological skills to compete economically
with low-wage, lower-tech overseas competitors.
There are many prospective industrial applications of the
OAUGDP which include subsonic plasma aerodynamic flow control; increasing the
surface energy and wettability of fabrics, films, and solid surfaces;
sterilizing medical equipment and air filters; stripping of photoresist and
directional etching of possible microelectronic relevance; oxide coating on
metals etc.
Furthermore, working with OAUGDP has the advantage of being
an environmentally friendly process. This is due to its simplicity of
application as a dry application media as well as its potential to cut down on
usage of resources which include water, chemicals as well as energy. Not only
it uses less energy but in Atlanta, USA the company Geoplasma uses it to blast
garbage with a stream of plasma which vaporizes the trash into pressurized gas
that spins a turbine to create electricity. That way fewer emissions are
released than incineration and the volume of landfills reduced as well as power
prices. The OAUGDP technology is supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Administration (EPA). With their support and demand some applications of the
glow discharge plasma have been commercialised such as the air filtration system
that destroys all microorganisms developed by AGT® and the fluorescent lamp
that requires neither mercury nor vacuum invented by the University of
Tennessee Plasma Science Laboratory.
With the rising number of sustainable regulations the One
Atmosphere Uniform Glow Discharge Plasma comes as a solution for greener
industrial works. The full potential has not yet been reached for this
technology. I would like to further study the OAUGDP and explore what other
capabilities it holds. My research could nd even more applications for this
phenomenon of the 4th state of matter. New technologies can be implemented such
as a device that reduces exhaust soot from vehicles and industrial chimneys or
food sterilizer that cleanses the food without the use of heat or chemicals
which will elongate its life. Another useful action would be to try promoting
this technology to be integrated in more industrial businesses which would
reduce pollution and waste.
