EARLIEST PRIORITY DATE:

This Application claims priority from a Complete patent application filed in India having Patent Application No. 202111038515, filed on August 25, 2021 and titled “SYSTEM FOR AIR PURIFICATION”.

FIELD OF INVENTION

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to the field of air filtering and more particularly to a system for air purification.

BACKGROUND

Air pollution refers to presence of certain substances in atmospheric air which may be harmful to humans and other living organisms. The certain substances may include gases, particulates, biological molecules, and the like. The air pollution may cause diseases, allergies and even death to the humans and the other living organisms. Air purifiers are widely being used to tackle the menace of the air pollution. The air purifier is a device used to remove contaminants from the atmospheric air to improve quality of the atmospheric air. Techniques used in the air purifier may be broadly classified into active purification techniques and passive purification techniques.

In the active purification technique, negatively charged ions are released into the atmospheric air, forcing the contaminants to bind with surrounding surfaces. In the passive purification technique, the contaminants are removed from the atmospheric air through a filtering process. However, the air purifiers currently available in market are less efficient due to inability to perform multistage filtering and sterilization of the atmospheric air. High power consumption and high cost associated the air purifiers are some other major concerns. Further, most of the air purifiers lacks standalone functionality and maintenance of the same requires manual intervention. Furthermore, most of the air purifiers have a limitation such that, operation of the air purifiers is possible only with alternative current (AC) supply.

Hence, there is a need for an improved system for air purification to address the aforementioned issue(s). BRIEF DESCRIPTION

In accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, a system for air purification is provided. The system includes a power supply unit. The power supply unit includes one or more renewable energy harvesters configured to generate electric power from one or more renewable energy sources. The system also includes a charge controller unit coupled to the power supply unit. The charge controller unit includes one or more converters configured to condition the electric power generated by regulating an output voltage of the power supply unit. The system further includes a storage unit coupled to the charge controller unit. The storage unit includes one or more energy storage systems to store the electric power conditioned by the one or more converters. The system also includes a filter unit coupled with the charge controller unit. The filter unit includes one or more inlet fans located at a bottom periphery of the filter unit. The one or more inlet fans are configured to retract air from an environment. The filter unit also includes one or more filters configured to receive the air from the one or more inlet fans. The one or more filters includes a high voltage filter configured to eliminate contaminants of predefined size from the air to obtain purified air. The filter unit further includes one or more outlet fans located at a top periphery of the filter unit. The one or more outlet fans are configured to supply the purified air to the environment from the one or more filters. The system further includes a control unit. The control unit includes a microcontroller. The microcontroller is configured to generate a switching signal for the one or more converters to condition the electrical power generated by the power supply unit and stored by the storage unit. The microcontroller is also configured to generate a control signal to control rotation of the one or more inlet fans and the one or more outlet fans in response to a real time clock signal.

To further clarify the advantages and features of the present disclosure, a more particular description of the disclosure will follow by reference to specific embodiments thereof, which are illustrated in the appended figures. It is to be appreciated that these figures depict only typical embodiments of the disclosure and are therefore not to be considered limiting in scope. The disclosure will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail with the appended figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The disclosure will be described and explained with additional specificity and detail with the accompanying figures in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a system for air purification in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of one embodiment of the system of FIG. 1 depicting a filter unit in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram representation of an exemplary system of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of one embodiment of the exemplary system of FIG. 3 depicting a battery charging circuit in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 5 is a schematic representation of one embodiment of the exemplary system of FIG. 3 depicting a high voltage circuit and an ultraviolet light circuit in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Further, those skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and may not have necessarily been drawn to scale. Furthermore, in terms of the construction of the device, one or more components of the device may have been represented in the figures by conventional symbols, and the figures may show only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present disclosure so as not to obscure the figures with details that will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the description herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

For the purpose of promoting an understanding of the principles of the disclosure, reference will now be made to the embodiment illustrated in the figures and specific language will be used to describe them. It will nevertheless be understood that no limitation of the scope of the disclosure is thereby intended. Such alterations and further modifications in the illustrated system, and such further applications of the principles of the disclosure as would normally occur to those skilled in the art are to be construed as being within the scope of the present disclosure. The terms "comprises", "comprising", or any other variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process or method that comprises a list of steps does not include only those steps but may include other steps not expressly listed or inherent to such a process or method. Similarly, one or more devices or sub-systems or elements or structures or components preceded by "comprises... a" does not, without more constraints, preclude the existence of other devices, sub-systems, elements, structures, components, additional devices, additional sub-systems, additional elements, additional structures, or additional components. Appearances of the phrase "in an embodiment", "in another embodiment" and similar language throughout this specification may, but not necessarily do, all refer to the same embodiment.

Unless otherwise defined, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by those skilled in the art to which this disclosure belongs. The system, methods, and examples provided herein are only illustrative and not intended to be limiting.

In the following specification and the claims, reference will be made to a number of terms, which shall be defined to have the following meanings. The singular forms “a”, “an”, and “the” include plural references unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a system for air purification. In accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure, a system for air purification is provided. The system includes a power supply unit. The power supply unit includes one or more renewable energy harvesters configured to generate electric power from one or more renewable energy sources. The system also includes a charge controller unit coupled to the power supply unit. The charge controller unit includes one or more converters configured to condition the electric power generated by regulating an output voltage of the power supply unit. The system further includes a storage unit coupled to the charge controller unit. The storage unit includes one or more energy storage systems to store the electric power conditioned by the one or more converters. The system also includes a filter unit coupled with the charge controller unit. The filter unit includes one or more inlet fans located at a bottom periphery of the filter unit. The one or more inlet fans are configured to retract air from an environment. The filter unit also includes one or more filters configured to receive the air from the one or more inlet fans. The one or more filters includes a high voltage filter configured to eliminate contaminants of predefined size from the air to obtain purified air. The filter unit further includes one or more outlet fans located at a top periphery of the filter unit. The one or more outlet fans are configured to supply the purified air to the environment from the one or more filters. The system further includes a control unit. The control unit includes a microcontroller. The microcontroller is configured to generate a switching signal for the one or more converters to condition the electrical power generated by the power supply unit and stored by the storage unit. The microcontroller is also configured to generate a control signal to control rotation of the one or more inlet fans and the one or more outlet fans in response to a real time clock signal.

FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of a system (10) for air purification in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The system (10) includes a power supply unit (20). The power supply unit (20) includes one or more renewable energy harvesters (30) which is configured to generate electric power from one or more renewable energy sources. In one embodiment, the one or more renewable energy harvesters (30) may include, but not limited to, solar panels, wind turbines and the like. In some embodiments, the one or more renewable energy sources may include, but not limited to, solar energy, wind energy, tidal energy, geothermal energy and the like. In one embodiment, output of the power supply unit (20) may be an alternating current (AC). In another embodiment, the output of the supply unit may be a direct current (DC). The system (10) also includes a charge controller unit (40) coupled to the power supply unit (20). In one embodiment, the charge controller unit (40) may include a shunt regulator, series regulator, maximum power point tracker (MPPT) based charge controller, pulse width modulation-based regulator and the like. The charge controller unit (40) includes one or more converters (50) which is configured to condition the electric power generated by regulating an output voltage of the power supply unit (20).

The system (10) also includes a control unit (130). The control unit (130) includes a microcontroller (140). The microcontroller (140) is configured to generate a switching signal for the one or more converters (50) to condition the electrical power generated by the power supply unit (20). In one embodiment, the microcontroller (140) may be configured to generate one or more pulse width modulated signals to control the one or more converters (50). In a specific embodiment, the one or more converters (50) may include dc-dc converters. The system (10) further includes a storage unit (60) coupled to the charge controller unit (40). The storage unit (60) includes one or more energy storage systems (70) to store the electric power conditioned by the one or more converters (50). In one embodiment, the one or more energy storage systems (70) may include, but not limited to, lead-acid batteries, lithium-ion batteries, high temperature and flow batteries and the like. The system (10) also includes a filter unit (80) coupled with the charge controller unit (40). The filter unit (80) is described in detail in FIG.2.

FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of one embodiment of the system (10) of FIG. 1 depicting a filter unit (80) in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The filter unit (80) includes one or more inlet fans (90) located at a bottom periphery of the filter unit (80). In one embodiment, the one or more inlet fans (90) may include, but not limited to, direct current (DC) fans, alternating current (AC) fans, brushless de fans and the like. The one or more inlet fans (90) are configured to retract air from an environment. In one embodiment, the environment may include, but not limited to, an indoor space, outdoor space, a street side, commercial buildings, educational institutions, living spaces, industrial area, metro areas polluted by vehicular exhaust and the like. In an exemplary embodiment, the one or more inlet fans (90) may extract the air from a height which is at least 2 feet above from a ground level.

The filter unit (80) also includes one or more filters (FIG.l, 100) which is configured to receive the air from the one or more inlet fans (90). The one or more filters (FIG.l, 100) includes a high voltage filter (FIG.l, 110) which is configured to eliminate contaminants of predefined size from the air to obtain purified air. In one embodiment, the high voltage filter (FIG.l, 110) may include two oppositely charged wire meshes configured to eliminate the contaminants by means of a high electrostatic field produced between the two oppositely charged wire meshes. In a specific embodiment, the contaminants may include, but not limited to, flies, insects, the contaminants present in the air which may be having size above a predefined micron level. In one embodiment, the one or more filters (FIG.1, 100) may include an electrostatic filter (FIG.1, 150) configured to eliminate the contaminants of predefined size from the air by means of static electricity. In some embodiments, the electrostatic filter (FIG.l, 150) may include one or more electrostatically charged plates mounted in line with a direction of flow of the air. The one or more electrostatically charged plates may attract or repel the contaminants from the air which may flow above the one or more electrostatically charged plates thereby eliminating the contaminants. In some embodiments, the one or more filters (FIG.l, 100) may also include an ultraviolet (UV) filter (FIG.l, 160) which is configured to remove pathogens and microorganisms from the air by means of ultraviolet (UV) light.

In a specific embodiment, the one or more filters (FIG.l, 100) may further include a high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter (FIG.l, 170) configured to eliminate smoke and impurities from the air. In one embodiment, the one or more filters (FIG.l, 100) may include an ozone treatment filter (FIG.l, 180) configured to eliminate bad odour from the air. The filter unit (80) further includes one or more outlet fans (120) located at a top periphery of the filter unit (80). The one or more outlet fans (120) are configured to supply the purified air to the environment from the one or more filters (FIG.l, 100). The microcontroller (FIG.l, 140) may be configured to generate a control signal to control rotation of the one or more inlet fans (90) and the one or more outlet fans (120) in response to a real time clock signal. In a specific embodiment, the real time clock signal may be generated by an inbuilt clock in the microcontroller (FIG.l, 140). In some embodiments, the real time clock signal may be generated by an external clock. In one embodiment, the filter unit (80) may include one or more maintenance fans (190) located at lateral sides of the filter unit (80). The one or more maintenance fans (190) may be configured to clean the one or more filters (100). In one embodiment, cleaning of the one or more filters (FIG.l, 100) may be performed by reversing a direction of rotation of the one or more maintenance fans (190) and the one or more outlet fans (120). In one embodiment, the microcontroller (FIG.l, 140) may be configured to switch polarities of the one or more maintenance fans (190), and the one or more outlet fans (120) at predefined time intervals to enable cleaning of the one or more filters (FIG.l, 100).

Referring back to the FIG.l, in a specific embodiment, the system (10) may include an auto transfer switch (210) to enable sourcing of the electric power from the power supply unit (20) or the storage unit (60) to the filter unit (80) and the one or more external entities (not shown in FIG. 1). In one embodiment, the electric power may be drawn from the power supply unit (20) to supply power the filter unit (80) and the one or more external entities (not shown in FIG. 1) when the electric power generated by the power supply unit (20) is sufficient enough to power the filter unit (80) and the one or more external entities (not shown in FIG. 1). If the electric power generated by the power supply unit (20) is insufficient to provide power the filter unit (80) and the one or more external entities (not shown in FIG. 1), the auto transfer switch (210) may enable the filter unit (80) and the one or more external entities (not shown in FIG. 1) to draw the electric power from the storage unit (60). In one embodiment, the system (10) may include an internet of things (IOT) enabled switch (200) configured to enable bidirectional transfer of the electric power between the storage unit (60) and one or more external entities (not shown in FIG. 1). In a specific embodiment, operation of the internet of things (IOT) enabled switch (200) may be authenticated by a secret code or a password. In such an embodiment, the secret code or password may include a QR code, a bar code or the like. In one embodiment, the one or more external entities (not shown in FIG. 1) may include, but not limited to, electrical appliances, streetlights, the energy storage systems and the like. In some embodiments, the system (10) may include a grid connection unit (220) which is configured to enable synchronization of the power supply unit (20) with a power grid. In one embodiment, the grid connection unit (220) enables export of the electric power to the power grid when the electric power generated by the power supply unit (20) is surplus.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram representation of an exemplary system (230) of FIG. 1 in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The exemplary system includes a solar panel (240) which may be configured to generate electric power from solar energy. The electric power generated by the solar panel (240) may be conditioned by the DC-DC converter (250). The DC-DC converter (250) may be controlled by the pulse width modulated signal produced by the microcontroller (140). The DC-DC converter (250) may condition the electric power to enable charging of a battery bank (260) via a battery charging circuit (270). Conditioning the electric power may include, but not limited to, level shifting of voltage, filtering out ripples, chopping of the voltage and the like. An auto transfer switch (210) may enable sourcing of the electric power from the solar panel (240) or the battery bank (260) to a load (400) and a high voltage (HV) circuits (280) and an IOT enabled emergency power outlet (290). In detail, when sufficient electric power is being produced, the load (400) and high voltage (HV) circuits (280) and the IOT enabled emergency power outlet (290) may be powered from the solar panel (240). When the solar panel (240) is not able to produce sufficient electric power to power the load (400) and high voltage (HV) circuits (280) and the IOT enabled emergency power outlet (290), the electric power may be drawn from the battery bank (260). The load (400) may be referred to the filter unit (80) which further includes one or more de fans facilitating purification of the air. The high voltage (HV) circuits (280) may be supplying power to a high voltage filter (FIG.l, 110) which may be configured to eliminate certain pollutants by a high electrostatic field. The IOT enabled emergency power outlet (290) may enable a bidirectional flow of the electric power. In detail, when the sufficient electric power is not available from the solar panel (240) or the battery bank (260), the IOT enabled emergency power outlet (290) may receive the electric power from an external source to maintain continuous supply of the power. The electric power may also be supplied to an outside entity from the solar panel (240) or from the battery bank (260) via the IOT enabled emergency power outlet (290). The IOT enabled emergency power outlet (290) may be controlled by an IOT module (300) associated with the microcontroller (140). Further, the exemplary system (230) includes a solar power sensor (310) configured to sense the electric power generated by the solar panel (240). Similarly, a battery power sensor (320) may be sensing the electric power stored in the battery bank (260). Outputs of the solar power sensor (310) and the battery power sensor (320) may be converted to corresponding digital signals using an analogue to digital converter (330) to interface the solar power sensor (310) and the battery power sensor (320) with the microcontroller (140). In a specific embodiment, other sensors (340) may also be interfaced with the microcontroller (140) via the analogue to digital converter (330). The other sensors (340) may include, but not limited to a fire sensor, smoke sensor, a fan speed sensor and the like. A real time clock module (350) may be configured to provide timed clock pulses to the microcontroller (140) for ensuring smooth operation of the microcontroller (140). The microcontroller (140) may be configured to generate one or more switching signals to various circuit elements according to input of the solar power sensor (310), the battery power sensor (320), and the other sensors (340). The one or more switching signals may be interfaced with the various circuit elements via a digital to analogue converter (360). The various circuit elements may include, but not limited to the one or more fans of the filter unit (FIG.1, 80), dc-dc converter (250), battery charging circuit (270), switching elements and the like.

FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of one embodiment of the exemplary system (230) of FIG. 3 depicting a battery charging circuit (270) in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. Output voltage of the solar panel (240) may be converted to an ac voltage by an inverter (370). The inverter may be controlled by the microcontroller (FIG.l, 140). The ac voltage may further level shifted by a high frequency transformer (380) to a desired voltage level. Level shifting of the ac voltage may be a step-up operation, or a step-down operation. The ac voltage which is level shifted by the high frequency transformer may be further rectified by a full bridge rectifier (390) to convert the ac voltage to a corresponding de voltage. The output of the full bridge rectifier (390) may be connected to the one or more dc-dc converters (250). The dc-dc converters (250) may include, but not limited to, a buck converter, a boost converter, a buck boost converter and the like. Output of the one or more dc-dc converters (250) may be connected to terminals of the battery bank (260) to enable a charging operation of the battery bank (260). Output of the one or more dc-dc converters (250) may also be connected to a load (400) such as one or more fans of the filter unit (80), IOT enabled emergency power outlet (290) and the like. FIG. 5 is a schematic representation of one embodiment of the exemplary system (230) of FIG. 3 depicting a high voltage circuits (280) and an ultraviolet light circuit in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. The working of the circuit diagram may be explained as follows. Initially, an output voltage of the battery bank (260) may be converted to an ac voltage by the inverter (370). The ac voltage output of the inverter (370) may be further level shifted by means of the high frequency transformer (380). Output of the high frequency transformer (380) may be fed to an ultraviolet lighting circuit (410) which may be used in the ultraviolet filter (FIG.l, 160). Output of the high frequency transformer (380) may also fed to a voltage double circuit (420) before feeding the high voltage filter (FIG.l ,110).

Various embodiments of the system for air purification described above enable various advantages. Multistage filtration makes the system efficient compared to the existing systems. Use of readily and locally available components enables cost effectiveness of the system. Also, functioning of the system is based on the electric power harnessed by the renewable energy sources which enables the standalone functionality of the system. Further, the system is capable of working with ac supply as well as de supply. Replacement of any components of the system may be possible in case of a failure rather than replacing the system entirely enables the modularity feature of the system.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory of the disclosure and are not intended to be restrictive thereof. While specific language has been used to describe the disclosure, any limitations arising on account of the same are not intended.

The figures and the foregoing description give examples of embodiments. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that one or more of the described elements may well be combined into a single functional element. Alternatively, certain elements may be split into multiple functional elements. Elements from one embodiment may be added to another embodiment. For example, the order of processes described herein may be changed and are not limited to the manner described herein. Moreover, the actions of any flow diagram need not be implemented in the order shown; nor do all the acts need to be necessarily performed. Also, those acts that are not dependent on other acts may be performed in parallel with the other acts. The scope of embodiments is by no means limited by these specific examples.