Porous Surface DBD Plasma Source

The PASTA project uses a porous surface DBD plasma generator that was developed to create plasma microbubbles on in-situ water treatment system for long-term space exploration mission by the University of Southampton.

A porous surface DBD plasma generator can generate plasma activated air and inject into water for removing biological and chemical contaminated water extracted from celestial bodies. In the PASTA project, we use this technology for directly sanitising air by inactivating airborne pathogens.

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Miniaturised High-voltage Power Driver:

 

A DBD plasma generator need a high voltage pulsed DC or AC to create strong electric field thus ionising air. In this project, we will use a power processing unit (PPU) of vacuum arc thruster, which was developed as the part of ESA’s innovative micropropulsion system programme (known as Cube-de-ALPS).

Porous Surface DBD Plasma Source

The PASTA uses the viricidal and bactericidal capability of non-thermal plasmas to decontaminate and sanitise air without using filters or UVC. It will be implemented into a portable platform so that the system can be easily deployed within the hospitals including poorly ventilated areas, clinical areas and waiting areas.

We have already explored the feasibility of plasma to sanitising air by measuring oxidation capability of plasma activated air. In our feasibility study, we injected plasma treated air into water to quantify its oxidation capability. During the initial study, we used a Methylene Blue (MB) as an indicator of oxidation level. After 5 min treatment, 95% of MB has been decomposed by plasma treated air, which is demonstrating strong oxidation capability of plasma treated air.

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