Droplet bandpass filter
AssigneeSaban Ventures Pty Limited
InventorsStephen Lea, Phuong Tran
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A droplet bandpass filter and method of modifying droplet size distribution of a population of droplets suspended in a gas. Droplets suspended in a gas are flowed through a bandpass filter having a tortuous pathway which comprises at least one impactor region located at a position adjacent to a flow direction change. Larger droplets impact at the impactor region while smaller droplets remain suspended in the gas and flow in the first output direction. Other flow restrictors may advantageously be included in the tortuous pathway. The filter is particularly useful in delivering sterilant aerosols (e.g. peroxides) with reduced populations of large droplets.
Claims22
A method of modifying a droplet size distribution of a population of droplets of a liquid sterilant suspended in a gas, the method comprising the steps of:
- flowing the population of droplets of the liquid sterilant suspended in the gas through a tortuous pathway, wherein the tortuous pathway comprises at least one impactor region located at a position adjacent to a flow direction change from a first input flow direction to a first output flow direction, wherein a first portion of the liquid droplets impact and are removed from the flowing gas at the at least one impactor region, and a second portion of the liquid droplets remain suspended in the gas and flow in the first output flow direction;
- recycling the sterilant from the first portion of the liquid droplets impacting and removed from the flowing gas at the at least one impactor region;
- and
- generating additional droplets of liquid sterilant suspended in the gas from the recycled sterilant.
A sterilization apparatus, comprising:
- a mist generator for generating droplets of a liquid sterilant suspended in a gas;
- and
- a droplet bandpass filter comprising a first inlet conduit, at least two first outlet conduits orthogonal to said first inlet conduit and an impactor region located at an end of the first inlet conduit and positioned to receive a linear flow of the liquid sterilant droplets suspended in a gas from the mist generator through the first inlet conduit such that a first portion of the liquid droplets impact and are removed from the flowing gas at the impactor region,
- wherein the sterilization apparatus is configured to recycle sterilant from the first portion of the liquid droplets removed from the flowing gas at the impactor region to the mist generator to generate additional droplets of liquid sterilant suspended in the gas from the recycled sterilant.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.