Plasma Pendix

In the Netherlands there are more than thirty-thousand people with stomas: a hole in the wall of the abdomen through which partially digested food can leave the body if due to a disease or surgery a portion of the intestinal system is not functioning anymore. The stoma is connected to a special pouch, in which the ‘feces’ are collected. Digestive gases also end up in such a stoma bag. People need to discharge those, but they have a rather pungent odor. For this reason the bags are fitted with carbon filters, which regularly get clogged up.

The main culprits are sulfurous molecules, notorious for the smell of rotten eggs. Those stench molecules can be simply broken up by a plasma which Plasma Pendix develops. Such a plasma is an ionized gas, which can be created by establishing a high voltage across two electrodes. Thanks to the high electric fields that arise, a current liberates electrons from their atoms, so that you get a mixture of negatively charged electrons and positive ions.

By making the gas flow along a series of such plasmas, you can selectively render the sulfurous molecules harmless.