Optimal Generation of 254nm ultraviolet radiation

Abstract

The science of the application of 254nm UV from mercury doped glow discharge tubes has been a major topic since Johann Ritter discovered UV via its chemical inducing reactions in 1801 and Niels Finsen's 1860 work on UV therapy in treating rickets. In 1857 Siemens AG patented UV254nm creation via filamentary discharge, subsequently widely used for ozone production. By 1932 the Coblentz Congress had defined the three regions of the UV action spectrum. This paper presents the science of a new design for a sterilizer module fabricated from extruded, recycled aluminium. This novel design achieves better than D10 performance using six UV tubes per module driven by three electronic ballasts drawing a total current of only 1.26 amps at 240V single phase. This module delivers more than 45,000 microwatts per square centimetre of 254nm UV which sterilises one litre per second in a module with a dwell time of 1.6 seconds in a design with less than 0.5 bar pressure drop across each module. This system takes the electrical efficiency of 254 UV generation from less than 25% to more than 92% as measured by an NPL-traceable calibration against a current industry standard. Since 254nm UV generating tubes are also the basis of fluorescent lighting this new work on optimising the generation of 254nm UV also has application worldwide to improved efficiency of fluorescent tube electrical lighting, because we have shown that most of the fluorescent lamps operating today (particularly the T8 1 diameter) are running at less than 25% efficiency as opposed to the over 92% which is possible with the methods we describe. The work reported here shows that the Townsend equation for electron transport in glow discharge plasmas is not adequate since it does not address either plasma diameter or plasma drive frequency both of which fundamentally alter the electron energy transfer efficiencies to mercury atoms in the plasma.