Aircraft air purification and volatile organic compounds reduction unit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10981102-B2
Application number	US-201816163051-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 17, 2018
Priority date	Oct 17, 2018
Publication date	Apr 20, 2021
Grant date	Apr 20, 2021

Abstract

A compact, lightweight, low power aircraft air filtration and VOC removal unit enables the removal of VOCs from cabin air in a passenger aircraft. A plurality of baffles having air flow-through airflow spaces are spaced apart along a duct. UV LEDs are mounted on the interior sides of the outermost baffles, and on both sides of all interior baffles. A filter module is disposed between pairs of baffles, and spaced from the baffles sufficiently to illuminate the entirety of both sides. Each filter modules comprises a plurality of filters. The filters are selected from a coarse foam, a fine foam, or a fused quartz filament felt. Each filter is loaded with a catalyst including one or more of AEROXIDE® P25, other pure titanium dioxide (TiO2), iron-doped TiO2, carbon-doped TiO2, and combinations thereof. The catalysts on the filters, under UV illumination, chemically reduce VOCs in the airflow to non-VOC molecules.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An aircraft air filtration and volatile organic compound (VOC) removal unit, comprising:
an air duct having a longitudinal axis, an air inlet at one end, and air outlet at the other end;
a plurality of baffles, each having a plurality of airflow spaces allowing airflow therethrough, disposed at spaced locations within the duct between the air inlet and air outlet, the baffles being generally transverse to the longitudinal axis;
a plurality of ultraviolet (UV) light emitting diodes (LED) mounted on each baffle; and
a porous and permeable photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) filter module disposed between each pair of baffles, generally transverse to the longitudinal axis, such that air flows through the PCO filter module;
wherein each PCO filter module contains one or more catalysts comprising titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ), TiO 2 doped with iron (Fe—TiO 2 ), TiO 2 doped with carbon (C—TiO 2 ), or combinations thereof which, when illuminated by UV light, are operative to chemically reduce VOCs to non-VOC molecules;
wherein each PCO filter module comprises a plurality of filters, each of the plurality of filters including one or more of a coarse foam, a fine foam, a fused quartz filament felt, or combination thereof, and wherein each of the plurality of filters is loaded with a catalyst including one or more of pure titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ), TiO 2 doped with iron (Fe—TiO 2 ), TiO 2 doped with carbon (C—TiO 2 ), or combination thereof;
wherein the VOC removal unit comprises four baffles and three PCO filter modules, and
wherein the PCO filter modules comprise, in order from air inlet to air outlet,
1) R25-CTR-TA-R25;
2) CTR-TA-Q25-R25-R25; and
3) R25-CTR-TA-R25, where
R25 is a coarse foam loaded with pure TiO 2 ;
Q25 is a fused quartz filament felt loaded with pure TiO 2 ;
CTR is a coarse foam loaded with C—TiO 2 and
TA is a fine foam loaded with pure TiO 2 .

2. The VOC removal unit of claim 1 further comprising one or more heat sinks disposed within the duct and adapted to conduct heat away from the UV LEDs to prolong their lifespan.

3. The VOC removal unit of claim 1 wherein the UV LEDs are disposed both around a periphery of each baffle and between the airflow spaces so as to maximize UV illumination of an adjacent PCO filter module.

4. The VOC removal unit of claim 3 wherein UV LEDs are mounted on interior sides of baffles adjacent the air inlet and outlet, and are mounted on both sides of all other baffles, so as to illuminate each PCO filter module from both sides.

5. The VOC removal unit of claim 4 wherein the PCO filter module is spaced apart from the baffles such that all of both surfaces of each PCO filter module is illuminated by UV light.

6. The VOC removal unit of claim 1 wherein each PCO filter module comprises a plurality of catalyst-loaded filters selected and arranged to maximize UV illumination of the plurality of catalyst-loaded filters and through a complete depth of each filter layer of the plurality of catalyst-loaded filters.

7. An aircraft air filtration and volatile organic compound (VOC) removal unit, comprising:
an air duct having a longitudinal axis, an air inlet at one end, and air outlet at the other end;
a plurality of baffles, each having a plurality of airflow spaces allowing airflow therethrough, disposed at spaced locations within the duct between the air inlet and air outlet, the baffles being generally transverse to the longitudinal axis;
a plurality of ultraviolet (UV) light emitting diodes (LED) mounted on each baffle; and
a porous and permeable photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) filter module disposed between each pair of baffles, generally transverse to the longitudinal axis, such that air flows through the PCO filter module;
wherein each PCO filter module contains one or more catalysts comprising titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ), TiO 2 doped with iron (Fe—TiO 2 ), TiO 2 doped with carbon (C—TiO 2 ), or combinations thereof which, when illuminated by UV light, are operative to chemically reduce VOCs to non-VOC molecules;
wherein each PCO filter module comprises a plurality of filters, each of the plurality of filters including one or more of a coarse foam, a fine foam, a fused quartz filament felt, or combination thereof, and wherein each filter is loaded with a catalyst including one or more of pure titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ), TiO 2 doped with iron (Fe—TiO 2 ), TiO 2 doped with carbon (C—TiO 2 ), or combination thereof
wherein the VOC removal unit comprises four baffles and three PCO filter modules; and
wherein the PCO filter modules comprise, in order from air inlet to air outlet,
1) R25-TA-FTR-CTR;
2) R25-CTA-FTR-Q25-R25; and
3) R25-TA-FTR-CTR; where
R25 is a coarse foam loaded with pure TiO 2 ;
Q25 is a fused quartz filament felt loaded with pure TiO 2 ;
CTR is a coarse foam loaded with C—TiO 2 ;
TA is a fine foam loaded with pure TiO 2 ; and
FTR is a coarse foam loaded with Fe—TiO 2 .

8. The VOC removal unit of claim 7 further comprising one or more heat sinks disposed within the duct and adapted to conduct heat away from the UV LEDs to prolong their lifespan.

9. The VOC removal unit of claim 7 wherein the UV LEDs are disposed both around a periphery of each baffle and between the airflow spaces so as to maximize UV illumination of an adjacent PCO filter module.

10. The VOC removal unit of claim 7 wherein each PCO filter module comprises a plurality of catalyst-loaded filters selected and arranged to maximize UV illumination of the plurality of catalyst-loaded filters and through a complete depth of each filter layer of the plurality of catalyst-loaded filters.

11. A method of aircraft air filtration and volatile organic compound (VOC) removal, comprising:
directing cabin air to an air inlet of an aircraft air filtration and VOC removal unit comprising an air duct having a longitudinal axis, whereby the air flows through airflow spaces in a plurality of baffles disposed at spaced locations within the duct and generally transverse to the longitudinal axis, and also through a porous and permeable photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) filter module disposed between each pair of baffles and generally transverse to the longitudinal axis, and then out of an air outlet; and
Illuminating the PCO filter modules with ultraviolet (UV) light from UV light emitting diodes (LED) mounted on each baffle;
wherein each PCO filter module contains one or more catalysts comprising titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ), TiO 2 doped with iron (Fe—TiO 2 ), or TiO 2 doped with carbon (C—TiO 2 ) which, when illuminated by UV light, are operative to chemically reduce VOCs to non-VOC molecules;
wherein each PCO filter module comprises one or more filters, each of the one or more filters including one or more of a coarse foam, a fine foam, a fused quartz filament felt, and combinations thereof, and wherein each of the one or more filters is loaded with a catalyst including one or more of pure titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ), TiO 2 doped with iron (Fe—TiO 2 ), TiO 2 doped with carbon (C—TiO 2 ), and combinations thereof;
wherein the VOC removal unit comprises four baffles and three PCO filter modules, and
wherein the PCO filter modules comprise, in order from air inlet to air outlet,
1) R25-CTR-TA-R25;
2) CTR-TA-Q25-R25-R25; and
3) R25-CTR-TA-R25, where
R25 is a coarse foam loaded with pure TiO 2 ;
Q25 is a fused quartz filament felt loaded with pure TiO 2 ;
CTR is a coarse foam loaded with C—TiO 2 and
TA is a fine foam loaded with pure TiO 2 .

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising conducting heat from the UV LEDs away from the LEDs via one or more heat sinks disposed within the duct.

Assignees

• Boeing Co

Inventors

• Trent Stephen M
• Space David R
• Talwar Rajesh
• Cebeci Hülya

Classifications

• B01D53/885

  Devices in general for catalytic purification of waste gases · CPC title

• B01D2259/4575

  in aeroplanes or space ships · CPC title

• B01D53/8668 Primary

  Removing organic compounds not provided for in B01D53/8603 - B01D53/8665 · CPC title

• B01D2255/702

  Carbon · CPC title

• B01D53/869

  Multiple step processes · CPC title