Electrostatic separation of volatile organic compounds by ionization.

Abstract

Removal technique of trace volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from air or other gases is of great concern in order to obtain contamination-free indoor air and various process gases for semiconductor manufacturing process. We propose a new technique for separating trace gas components. This technique utilizes preferential ionization and electrical migration of ions. Nitrogen and oxygen gas flow containing toluene vapor is divided into two flows, while the flow is irradiated with alpha-ray from 241Am under a DC electric field. The ionized toluene vapor in one flow electrically migrates into the other flow causing toluene rich and free flows. The separation efficiency of toluene is 50% when 0.5 L/min of inlet nitrogen stream contains 0.15 ppm of toluene at the applied voltage of 250 V. The separation efficiency of toluene increases with the mole fraction of oxygen in the carrier gas. The cation concentration flowing out from the separator is lower than the number of separated toluene molecules by 6 orders of magnitude, but the dependency of toluene separation efficiency on the applied voltage is the same as that of cation separation efficiency. The dependency of separation efficiency on the applied voltage and the gas flow velocity is qualitatively explained by the separation model which accounts for the generation and neutralization of VOC ions in the separator.