Development of a magnetic pulse compression modulator for flue gas treatment

A pulse generator of a one-stage magnetic pulse compression (MPC) modulator, which has an average power of 7.5 kW, was developed. The modulator consists of a constant-current capacitor charger (max. 21.7 kV, 300 Hz), an initial charge capacitor (0.2 /spl mu/F, 40 kV), a thyratron switch, a pulse transformer with a turn ratio of 1 to 8, ceramic capacitors (2.7 nF, 160 kV), and a magnetic switch. The output voltage, current and the pulsewidth of the modulator were measured to be 85.6 kV, 1.88 kA, and 200 ns (full width half maximum) respectively, with the initial charging voltage of 20 kV. This modulator system can be operated at the maximum repetition rate of 300 Hz and the energy delivery efficiency from the initial charge capacitor to the dummy load is estimated as 55%. The pulse generator is applied to a reactor of pin-to-hole type to investigate the impedance matching between the pulse generator and the reactor, and the experimental results are presented.