ITUB20156018A1 - Air purification device - Google Patents

Description

DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to an air purification device in any environment generally crowded or in any case frequented by people (for example a school, an industrial plant, a hospital, a shopping center, a shop, a restaurant, gym and so on).

As is known, in the air of an environment crowded with people the presence of pathogenic microorganisms is obvious: at school, at work or in any other public place, the sneezing of even a single affected person is enough to cause a fast and inexorable epidemic.

In most cases, a cold or flu represent a bearable physical annoyance for the individual, but the overall social cost that follows is, however, very high and it is evident that greater attention to the level of air quality (in terms of its purity) would bring significant benefits to the community.

There is also the worrying phenomenon of the so-called "return pathologies" which consists in the reappearance of diseases linked to a past of underdevelopment and poverty and which surprisingly resurrect more aggressive and resistant in industrialized societies, especially as a result of increasingly frequent, intense migratory flows. and massive.

Some of these diseases affect humans closely because the infectious agents that cause them are transmitted by air, being conveyed by the aerosol and dust present in the atmosphere.

Pulmonary tuberculosis, until the advent of antibiotics, was one of the main causes of mortality: currently, cases of tuberculosis are on the rise again, to the point of having determined the maximum mobilization of health authorities.

Whooping cough, measles, acute lung infections are other examples of airborne diseases, which together with tuberculosis (also known as TB), are responsible for over eight million deaths a year worldwide.

For their part, room air treatment systems can exacerbate these problems, acting as a potential vehicle for infectious charges, or become themselves a diffusive focus, in cases where their maintenance is scarce or even absent. In any case, in the current state of the art, it appears more necessary than ever to turn the role of air treatment plants into a positive one, through the use of appropriate and innovative techniques of filtration, sterilization and / or purification of the air transported in the ducts. .

Air quality in the Italian society (but it is possible to extend this concept probably to Europe and also to newly industrialized foreign countries) presents a problem of considerable importance linked to fine dust especially in cities, where city traffic of cars, motorbikes and scooters cause them to rise to levels that sometimes reach the threshold of danger to people's health and which, as is well known, the authorities try to contain with a somewhat invasive measure, what is the blocking of traffic.

However, as is well known, the blocking of vehicle traffic does not at all involve a decrease in the level of fine particles, but only their deposit on the ground: it follows that, when traffic subsequently resumes, the fine particles, if they have not been mechanically removed. by washing the streets, they inevitably return to drcolo, with the obvious disadvantages that derive from it.

It is for this reason that even during the summer the municipal administrations provide for the washing of the streets, especially after a blockage of the circulation of vehicles.

A solution that is currently used to remove air-dispersed fine dust consists of a mechanical filtering system adopted in air treatment systems: mechanical filters work by means of a forced suction system which by passing the air through the filter, prevents fine dust particles from passing through the filter by mechanically retaining them.

However, known mechanical filtering has two main drawbacks: first of all, it is not able to retain the smallest fine particles and not even to reduce the bacterial load or the spores present in the air to be purified, on the contrary it concentrates them in the mechanical filter which thus becomes a sort of magnet and a hotbed of infections.

Secondly, once the suction system is turned off, the bacteria or microbes retained by the mechanical filter, not being properly trapped in it, immediately return to the environment thanks to natural convection or air movement phenomena, even inside. of closed environments such as homes and offices, for example.

For what has just been said, the systems currently used for air cleaning do not combine the characteristics of an integrated system and have only some of the expected advantages and only minimally solve the drawbacks associated with air pollution.

Therefore, it is possible to reasonably state that known types of air purification devices or systems are not able to fully and completely satisfy the stringent needs of the market and, in turn, appear clearly not immune from the drawbacks listed above which are also widely known. Starting, therefore, from the knowledge of the aforementioned main drawbacks of the prior art, the present invention proposes to overcome them in a complete and effective way.

In particular, the main object of the present invention is to provide an air purification device that is able to intervene in the quality of the air breathed by people in an environment in an optimal way, purifying it in any case in a much better way than what happens with the devices or the air treatment plants of the known art. In other words, the main purpose of the invention is to conceive an air purification device which allows to eliminate or at least drastically reduce, with respect to what can be obtained with purification devices of a known type, the level of fine dust present in the air of an environment and, consequently, to carry out a more effective and more complete cleaning of the air than that offered by such devices of the prior art.

Within this scope, it is a consequent task of the invention to devise an air purification device which improves people's living and health conditions with respect to the current state of the art.

It is a second object of the present invention to provide an air purification device that is capable of withdrawing from the air itself not only the foreign and harmful particles of larger dimensions but also the smallest and almost impossible to capture fine particles with known purification devices or air treatment systems currently in operation.

In the cognitive sphere of this second purpose, it is the task of the current invention to indicate an air purification device that reduces the social and civil costs, typically incurred by the Public Administration, related to interventions to combat fine dust pollution in the air. environmental, carried out at present on a periodic but now constant basis to limit the notoriously harmful effects in the medium-long term. It is not the least object of the invention to indicate an air purification device which is of simple construction concept, easy to handle, transport and lift, has a minimum bulk and can also be used by non-expert personnel not only in the industrial field but also civil and domestic.

The said purposes are achieved by means of an air purification device as in claim 1 attached hereto, to which reference should be made for the sake of brevity.

Other detailed technical and constructive characteristics of the air purification device are contained in the respective dependent claims.

The aforesaid claims, hereinafter specifically and concretely defined, are intended as an integral part of the present description.

Advantageously, the device of the invention makes it possible to purify the air in a given environment more effectively than known appliances and systems, up to the point of capturing even the finest particles of the smallest size: thanks to the fact that a sort of "washing" of the air to be purified by means of a nebulized liquid (usually but not exclusively water), carried out inside expedited channeling means (such as for example a linear duct) contained in a collection tank.

Ultimately, therefore, the technical characteristics contained in the independent claim attached to this description allow to purify the air of an environment in an almost complete way, in any case better than what can be found in the prior art and to introduce into the environment itself in a practical way , the freshly purified air is quick and easy, preventing it from increasing the ambient humidity.

Basically, by means of the air purification device of the invention, even the smallest foreign particles present in the air, such as spores, fungi, bacteria and viruses, attach themselves to the drops of liquid (generally water) nebulized by the media. of nebulization and conveyed to these by the pumping means belonging to the purification device of the invention.

Therefore, the air purifier of the invention essentially serves to reduce the air-dispersed particles, which, as known, are harmful to the health of the individual, so that the latter can breathe better inside the purified environment similar to when, after a rain, it is found to breathe well or better than the previous situation.

Therefore, already with what is improperly defined here as 'washing' of the air by means of a liquid, the well-being of people is increased who are enabled to breathe clean uriary from air-dispersed particulate (particles deriving from the combustion of fossil fuels, allergens such as pollen, etc.).

Still advantageously, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the nebulized liquid used to purify the air consists of a solution comprising a broad spectrum disinfectant diluted in water; in this way, it is possible to further reduce, to almost zero, the load of bacteria, fungi and spores dispersed in the air to be purified.

Equally advantageously, the air purification device of the invention improves the quality of life of people, in terms of a greater and more effective safeguard of their health.

Equally advantageously, the air purification device of the present invention is able to some extent to have a positive impact on the civil and social costs that the Public Administration in particular has to bear in order to reduce fine dust in the environment.

The aforementioned purposes and advantages, as well as others that will emerge later on, will appear to a greater extent from the following description, relating to a preferred embodiment of the air purification device, given as an indication and illustrative, but not limitative, in relation to figure 1 of the attached drawing table which shows a simplified longitudinal sectional view of the air purification device of the invention.

In particular, the air purification device present in an environment, object of the present invention, is indicated as a whole with 1 in Figure 1.

In accordance with the essential technical characteristics of the invention, the air purification device 1 comprises:

- a collection or accumulation tank 2 suitable for insisting on a support surface S, such as the floor of a room of a building, for example a house, and having an outlet 3;

- channeling means, indicated as a whole with 4, of the air to be purified taken from an environment, in this case only partially contained in the collection tank 2 and communicating with the internal volume 5 of the collection tank 2 by means of a plurality of outlets step 6;

- pumping means, numbered as a whole with 7, of a liquid, operatively connected to the collection tank 2 by means of a delivery pipe 9 and a return pipe 8;

- nebulization means, indicated as a whole with 10, arranged inside the channeling means 4, upstream of the passage openings 6, and operatively connected to the delivery pipe 9: the nebulization means 10 have the function of nebulizing liquid inside the channeling means 4 against the air to be purified taken from the environment in such a way that the nebulized liquid acts as a means of cleaning the air, capturing the dust present in the air itself and carrying them with it while decanting by falling on the bottom 2a of the collection tank 2 and the purified air exits from the collection tank 2, to be thus introduced clean into the environment, first passing through the passage openings 6 and then through the outlet 3 obtained in the collection tank 2.

Preferably, the channeling means 4 comprise in this specific case a tubular element 11 (having, for example, a cylindrical shape), provided with a first end 11a, arranged close to the internal bottom 2a of the collection tank 2, and with a second end 11b facing the environment (external to the collection tank 2) from which the air to be purified is taken and through which the air to be purified enters the tubular element 11.

More in detail, the tubular element 11 is generally arranged coaxially to the collection tank 2 and develops along a vertical longitudinal axis Y, as can be clearly seen in Figure 1.

Furthermore, in this case, the second end 11b of the tubular element 11 protrudes from the upper surface 2b of the collection tank 2, in accordance with what has already been pointed out above when it has been explained that the channeling means 4 are only partially contained in the tank. collection 2 in the preferred embodiment example being described.

Preferably but not necessarily, the channeling means 4 comprise ventilation means, globally indicated by 12 in Figure 1, arranged in contact with the environment and suitable for forcing the air flow to be purified into the channeling means 4: in particular, the ventilation means 12 are coupled to the tubular element 11 of the channeling means 4 by means of a support body 13 arranged at the second end 11b of the tubular element 11 itself.

Advantageously but not exclusively, the air purification device 1 of the invention also comprises filtering means, for simplicity of presentation not shown in the attached figure 1, arranged in the suction circuit of the pumping means 7, in particular in the return pipe 8 , and having the task of purifying the liquid, while it is sucked by the pumping means 7, from the impurities and / or powders of larger dimensions possibly present in the liquid itself, preventing their subsequent entry into the channeling means 4: these filtering means thus prevent clogging up to the clogging of the nebulization means 10 and also allow the pumping means 7 to operate in a regular manner, preventing the impurities and / or dust - which have now thickened into filamentary compounds - negatively re-enter the hydraulic circuit .

As shown in Figure 1, the pumping means 7 are preferentially arranged externally to the collection tank 2 and communicate with the channeling means 4 through the delivery pipe 9 and with the internal annular chamber 14, formed by the channeling means 4 together with the internal volume 5 of the collection tank 2, through the return pipe 8, as can also be deduced from what is reported in the previous paragraph. Purely preferably, the pumping means 7 comprise a liquid displacement pump (not shown in detail) of the type known per se to the skilled person in the field, equipped with a head suitable for the application in question and arranged externally to the tank. collection 2, close to the support surface S.

As far as the purified air passage openings 6 are concerned, they are suitably but not necessarily arranged in proximity to the lateral edge 15a of the final portion 15 of the channeling means 4 contained in the collection tank 2 until they are slightly affected (or occupied) from the liquid that is deposited on the internal bottom 2a of the latter, soaked in fine powders just removed from the air by means of the droplets of liquid nebulized by the nebulization means 10.

In addition, the passage openings 6, preferably two in number, are obtained in the channeling means 4 on the opposite side with respect to the outlet mouth 3 in such a way that the purified air remains as long as possible in the internal annular chamber. 14 of the collection tank 2 in its ascent path of the latter, leaving the collection tank 2 itself towards the dryest possible external environment.

As shown in Figure 1, each of the passage openings 6 (passing through the thickness of the channeling means 4, in the particular case of the tubular element 11) has in this case, purely by way of indicative and illustrative but not limiting example, a profile regular closed in the shape of a circle.

In other embodiments of the air purification device of the invention, not illustrated in the following drawings, the passage openings may have a profile different from the one just described, specifically open (for example in the form of a substantially access opening for a tunnel) obtained from the lateral edge towards the internal part of a final portion of the channeling means: this solution has the further advantage of improving the swirl or ebb of the liquid on the internal bottom of the collection tank and, consequently, the degree of its cleanliness.

With reference to the atomizing means 10, they comprise a plurality of atomizing nozzles 16 protruding from the inner wall 11c of the tubular element 11 and communicating with the delivery pipe 9 by means of an annular, not visible, interspace formed in the tubular element 11.

In particular, the atomizing nozzles 16 are present in a number of not less than two, for example four by two by two diametrically opposed, and are uniformly distributed along the aforementioned internal wall 11c of the tubular element 11.

In a preferred but non-binding manner, the atomizing nozzles 16 are arranged in correspondence with the median zone 11d of the tubular element 11, therefore under the ventilation means 12 (or in any case under the inlet of the air to be purified inside the ducting 4) and above the passing vents 6.

It is understood that in other embodiments of the air purification device of the invention, not shown in the following drawing tables, the nebulizing means may comprise a number of nebulizing nozzles other than the one just indicated above, this number being able to vary according to construction choices and operational needs starting from one.

Furthermore, in alternative and optional variants of the invention, not shown, the air purification device may comprise nebulization means different from those previously described: such nebulization means may, for example, include one or more ultrasonic capsules aimed at towards the inside of the tubular element of the channeling means and communicating with the delivery pipe.

According to the preferred embodiment of the invention described here, the liquid sprayed by the nebulization means 10 against the air to be purified is an aqueous solution comprising water and a disinfectant agent diluted in the water itself and having substantially minimal impact on people's health: this harmless solution is suitable for neutralizing, dissolving or totally eliminating bacteria, viruses, fungi and / or spores present in the air to be purified.

In summary, therefore, the viruses, bacteria, spores, fungi and / or similar organisms present in the air to be purified are "killed" (or annihilated) by the disinfectant agent (harmless to people's health) diluted in the water, while the fine powders are retained by the water of the solution and accumulate together with the disinfectant liquid on the internal bottom 2a of the collection tank 2; the larger powders dispersed in the liquid itself are, on the other hand, retained by the filtering means arranged in the return duct 8, upstream of the suction circuit of the pumping means 7, in the phase in which the liquid is sucked from the internal bottom 2a of the tank 2 to be reintroduced into circulation towards the nebulization means 10. Figure 1 also shows that the outlet 3 through which the purified air is introduced into the environment coming from the internal volume 5 of the collection tank 2 (as well as from the tubular element 11 of the channeling means 4) comprises a tubular body 17 protruding from the external side wall 2c of the collection tank 2.

More specifically, the tubular body 17 is preferably coupled by means of joining means, such as for example an annular bead of filler material for welding, and projects from the external side wall 2c of the collection tank 2 in an oblique linear direction Z oriented towards the 'tall.

In addition, still preferably but not exclusively, the tubular body 17 is arranged at a distance from the internal bottom 2a of the collection tank 2 which is greater than the distance from said internal bottom 2a to which the nebulization means 10 are arranged.

Those just described are only the main technical characteristics of the air purification device (or apparatus) 1 of the invention, which is however equipped with all the safety devices required by law: the pumping system works only in low voltage since the the air purification device of the invention provides for contact with a liquid, and this arrangement eliminates the problem of possible lightning strikes or electrocutions.

It is however good practice to always disconnect the air purification device of the invention before carrying out maintenance operations on it or before adding or changing the liquid (water or disinfectant solution).

The wet abatement systems, such as the one provided by the air purification device 1 of the invention described here, provide for the removal of pollutants present in a contaminated gaseous stream by the action of a liquid, usually water; for this reason, such systems can also be defined as "washing systems".

For fine powders with a diameter greater than one micrometer (1 pm), the main mechanism that comes into play in the purification is given by the impact of the contaminants with the drops of the liquid or with the wet surfaces of the structures specially designed to facilitate better abatement. : the liquid captures these contaminants and drags them away with it, thus allowing to clean up the polluted gas flow.

On the contrary, for particulate matter (fine particles) with a smaller diameter and for gases, purification takes place essentially because the contaminants are absorbed into the liquid substance: this process which consists in the selective passage of one or more components from a gaseous phase to a liquid is called "absorption".

Absorption can be of two types, physical and chemical: the physical one occurs when the pollutants (or contaminants) dissolve in the liquid medium which simply acts as a solvent (as in the preferred variant of the executive solution described above for the purification device of the air of the invention), while the chemical one occurs when the polluting agents react chemically with the liquid or with suitable reagents present inside it.

It should be noted that chemical adsorption can occur with reversible or irreversible reactions, depending on the substances involved: in the first case, the liquid can be recovered after an appropriate regeneration, while in the second case (irreversible reactions) it must necessarily be disposed of and replaced.

From an operational point of view, the air purification (or purification) device 1 of the present invention initially envisages electrically operating (preferably in low voltage, as mentioned) the pumping means 7 for the liquid (water or, as in the case described above, disinfectant solution), in such a way that the liquid itself is transferred to the nebulization means 10 by means of the delivery pipe 9.

At the same time the air to be purified (or purified) enters the tubular element 11 of the channeling means 4, according to the direction indicated by the arrow E in Figure 1, at the second end 11b where the air undergoes a first purification by the filtering means that retain larger particles.

In its path inside the channeling means 4 the air to be purified encounters at a certain point (in the specific case, in the median zone lld of the tubular element 11) the atomized liquid sprayed against it by the atomising nozzles 16 of the means of nebulization 10: in this way, the nebulized liquid captures the fine dust from the air (which is substantially purified, cleaned and so to speak "washed") and carries them with it by falling towards the internal bottom 2a of the collection tank 2.

In this regard, it should be noted that the residual liquid L, soaked in particles of fine dust, which accumulates in the bottom of the collection tank 2 does not exceed a height of 3-4 cm in order not to significantly obstruct the passage openings. 6 through which the freshly purified air exits from the cylindrical tubular element 11 to thus enter the internal annular chamber 14 of the collection tank 2 where the purified air rises progressively, suitably but not necessarily following the longest path, until it meets the outlet 3 which allows its definitive introduction into the external environment, suitably channeled by the tubular body 17, as indicated by the arrow U in figure 1.

At the same time, according to a continuous air treatment cycle, the pumping means 7 suck the liquid L present in the internal bottom 2a of the collection tank 2 and convey it again to the nebulization means 10, first passing through the return pipe 8 ( where the liquid undergoes the appropriate although preferred and non-essential action of the filtering means), subsequently through the pumping means 7 and finally through the delivery pipe 9.

The continuous air treatment cycle is periodically interrupted, according to times freely established by the user who provides for the disposal and replacement of the liquid used up to that moment.

On the basis of the description just provided, it is therefore understood that the air purification device, object of the present invention, achieves the purposes and achieves the advantages mentioned above.

During the execution phase, modifications may be made to the air purification device of the present invention, consisting, for example, of channeling means totally housed inside the collection tank, in any case communicating with the external environment by means of an appendix terminal facing it.

In addition, in other constructive variants of the air purification device of the invention, not illustrated in the attached drawing tables, the air channeling means can communicate with the internal volume of the collection tank through a number of passage openings. different from that shown in the single attached figure, as this number can vary according to the construction choices starting from imo.

Furthermore, further executive solutions of the air purification device claimed herein, not accompanied in the following by reference figures, may provide that the liquid sprayed in nebulized form against the air to be purified is different from that previously described, being able to be constituted to for example by water alone, which does not invalidate the advantage provided by the present invention.

Finally, in other embodiments of the air purification device of the invention, again not illustrated in the annex, the channeling means and the nebulization means may have a different construction concept from that highlighted previously.

In addition to that, in alternative variants of the invention, not yet shown of the purification device, the collection or accumulation tank may have a plurality of used mouths for the air to be purified, and not only one as in the example of embodiment described. previously and shown in the attached figure.

Finally, it is clear that numerous other variations can be made to the air purification device in question, without thereby departing from the novelty principles inherent in the inventive idea, just as it is clear that, in the practical implementation of the invention, the materials, shapes and dimensions of the illustrated details may be any according to requirements, and may be replaced with other technically equivalent ones.

Where the constructive characteristics and techniques mentioned in the subsequent claims are followed by reference marks or numbers, these reference marks have been introduced with the sole aim of increasing the intelligibility of the claims themselves and, consequently, they do not have any limiting effect. on the interpretation of any element identified, purely by way of example, by these reference signs.

Claims (18)

CLAIMS 1. Purification device (1) of the air present in an environment, characterized in that it includes: - a collection tank (2) able to insist on a support surface (S) and having at least one outlet (3); - channeling means (4) of the air to be purified taken from an environment, at least partially contained in said collection tank (2) and communicating with the internal volume (5) of said collection tank (2) by means of one or more passage vents (6); - means for pumping a liquid (7) operatively connected to said collection tank (2) by means of a delivery pipe (9) and a return pipe (8); - nebulization means (10) arranged inside said channeling means (4), upstream of said passage openings (6), and operatively connected to said delivery pipe (9), adapted to nebulize said liquid in the inside of said channeling means (4) against said air to be purified taken from said environment in such a way that said nebulized liquid acts as a means of cleaning said air, capturing the powders present in said air and transporting them with it while decanting by falling on the internal bottom (2a) of said collection tank (2), and said purified air exits from said collection tank (2) passing first through said passage openings (6) and then through said outlet mouth (3) obtained in said collection tank (2). 2. Device (1) as in claim 1), characterized in that said channeling means (3) comprise a tubular element (11) provided with a first end (11a), arranged close to said internal bottom (2a) said collection tank (2), and of a second end (11b) facing said environment from which said air to be purified is taken and through which said air to be purified enters said tubular element (11). 3. Device (1) as per claim 2), characterized in that said tubular element (11) is arranged coaxially to said collection tank (2) and develops along a vertical longitudinal axis (Y). Device (1) as any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said second end (11b) of said tubular element (11) projects from the upper surface (2b) of said collection tank (2). 5. Device (1) as any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said channeling means (4) comprise ventilation means (12) arranged in contact with said environment and able to force said air to be purified inside said channeling means (4). 6. Device (1) as per claim 5), characterized in that it comprises filtering means arranged in the suction circuit of said pumping means (7) and able to purify said liquid, while it is sucked by said pumping means (7) , from impurities and / or powders of larger dimensions present in said liquid, preventing their subsequent entry into said channeling means (4). 7. Device (1) as in any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said pumping means (7) are arranged externally to said collection tank (2) and communicate with said channeling means (4) through said delivery pipe (9) and with the internal annular chamber (14) formed by said channeling means (4) with said internal volume (5) of said collection tank (2) through said return pipe (8). 8. Device (1) as any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said passage openings (6) are formed in said channeling means (4) on the opposite side with respect to said outlet mouth (3) in such a way that said purified air remains as long as possible in said collection tank (2) exiting from said collection tank (2) towards the dryest possible external environment. Device (1) as in any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said pass-through openings (6) for the passage of said purified air are arranged in proximity to the lateral edge (15a) of the final portion (15) of said channeling means (4) contained in said collection tank (2). 10. Device as in any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said passage openings have an open profile starting from the lateral edge towards the internal part of a final portion of said channeling means. Device (1) as any one of claims 1) to 4), characterized in that said nebulizing means (10) comprise one or more nebulizing nozzles (16) protruding from the inner wall (11le) of said tubular element ( 11) and communicating with said delivery pipe (9) by means of an annular interspace formed in said tubular element (11). Device (1) as per claim 11), characterized by the fact that said atomizing nozzles (16) are present in number not less than two and are uniformly distributed along said inner wall (11a) of said tubular element (11). 13. Device (1) as claimed in claim 11) or 12), characterized in that said atomising nozzles (16) are arranged in correspondence with the median zone (11 d) of said tubular element (11). 14. Device as any of claims 1) to 4), characterized in that said nebulization means include one or more ultrasonic capsules turned towards the inside of said channeling means and communicating with said delivery pipe. Device (1) as in any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said liquid sprayed by said nebulization means (10) against said air to be purified is an aqueous solution comprising water and a disinfectant agent diluted in said water and substantially of minimum impact on people's health, able to totally neutralize bacteria, viruses, fungi and / or spores present in said air to be purified. Device (1) as any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said outlet (3) through which said purified air is introduced into said environment coming from said internal volume (5) of said collection tank (2 ) comprises a tubular body (17) protruding from the external side wall (2c) of said collection tank (2). 17. Device (1) as per claim 16), characterized in that said tubular body (17) protrudes from said external side wall (2c) of said collection tank (2) in an oblique linear direction (Z) oriented towards the 'tall. 18. Device (1) as claimed in claims 16) or 17), characterized in that said tubular body (17) is arranged at a distance from said internal bottom (2a) of said collection tank (2) greater than the distance of said nebulization means (10) from said internal bottom (2a).