Corona source for generating a corona discharge and fluid waste treatment with corona discharge

摘要

A corona source suitable for use in vehicle ignition systems uses a conductive coil (4) that receives an RF input (8) at one end and has a corona discharge site (10) at the other end, with a reference electrode (2) capacitively coupled to the coil. The pitch and the length of the coil are selected to produce a corona discharge in response to an RF input signal at a predetermined frequency and voltage, through quarter wavelength resonation. The new resonant coil can be used to remediate fluid-borne wastes by initiating and sustaining RF corona discharges within the fluid. The pulses used to initiate teh corona discharge preferably have alternating positive and negative components, with high initial voltages on the positive components to initiate discharge, followed by lower positive voltage levels to sustain the discharge. Unipolar pulses, preferably with progressively decreasing voltages levels, can also be used. MATH