Patent ID: 8105546

Claim:
Apparatus for treatment of airborne pollutants comprising: a planar dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) type non-thermal plasma (NTP) generation cell assembly including at least one electrically hot electrode and at least two electrically ground electrodes provided in an alternating arrangement and mounted side-by-side in a frame, each of said at least one electrically hot electrode and said at least two electrically ground electrodes is an electrically conductive plate of having a pair of opposed major faces, and at least one electrically hot electrode or said at least two electrically ground electrodes is made from a catalytically active material; dielectric barriers which are plates having a pair of opposed major faces and mounted in said frame between said at least one electrically hot electrode and said at least two electrically ground electrodes with the major faces of the dielectric barriers are in planar arrangement with the major faces of said at least one electrically hot and said at least two electrically ground electrodes; air gaps provided on either side of said dielectric barriers; a gas inlet for directing gas into said cell assembly; a gas outlet for discharging gas from said cell assembly; a gas flow path provided between said gas inlet and said gas outlet, said gas flow path extending through said air gaps; insulators provided on side edges of each of said at least one electrically hot electrode and said at least two electrically ground electrodes to electrically isolate said at least one electrically hot electrode and said at least two electrically ground electrodes from said frame and couple each of said at least one electrically hot electrode and said at least two electrically ground electrodes to said frame, said side edges being provided with an offset shape so that formation of an NTP field near said frame between opposing conductive parts of said at least one electrically hot electrode and said at least two electrically ground electrodes is avoided, said at least one electrically hot electrode and said at least two electrically ground electrodes positioned in said gas flow path exposed to said gas for contacting said gas by said catalytically active material from which the at least one of the electrically hot or the electrically ground electrodes is made; wherein said at least one electrically hot electrode and said at least two electrically ground electrodes generate NTP fields in the air gaps and on the surface of the separating dielectric barrier between opposing surfaces of electrically hot electrodes and electrically ground electrodes when power is applied to said cell assembly, said NTP fields being located in said gas flow path and which produce chemically active species, electrical bombardment and electron/molecular collision for the ionization, decomposition, oxidation and reduction to transform said airborne pollutants to harmless oxidized and reduced forms prior to environmental release.