In this study, a lab-scale plant was designed to treat water in continuous flow condition using non-thermal plasma technology. The core was an electrode system with connected high-voltage (HV) pulse generator. Its potentials and limitations were investigated in different experimental series with regard to the high-voltage settings, additions of oxygen-based species, different volume flow rates, and various physical-chemical properties of the process water such as conductivity, pH value, and temperature. Indigo carmine, para-Chlorobenzoic acid, and phenol were chosen as reference substances. The best HV settings was found for the voltage amplitude Û = 30 kV, the pulse repetition rate f = 0.4–0.6 kHz, and the pulse duration tb = 500 ns with an energy yield for 50% degradation G50, which is of 41.8 g∙kWh−1 for indigo carmine, 0.32 g∙kWh−1 for para-Chlorobenzoic acid, and 1.04 g∙kWh−1 for phenol. By adding 1 × 10−3 mol∙L−1 of oxygen, a 50% increase in degradation was achieved for para-Chlorobenzoic acid. Conductivity is the key parameter for degradation efficiency with a negative exponential dependence. The most important species for degradation are hydroxyl radicals (c ≈ 1.4 × 10−8 mol∙L−1) and solvated electrons (c ≈ 1.4 × 10−8 mol∙L−1). The results show that the technology could be upgraded from the small-scale experiments described in the literature to a pilot plant level and has the potential to be used on a large scale for different applications.
Only considering consumers’ store format choice seldom provides sufficient information on their choice of the actual point of purchase for meat: self-service counter or service counter. For retailers, however, it is of crucial importance to know how meat shoppers differ in their store format choice, preferred type of meat packaging and how these differences can be explained. This paper investigates how attitudes and sociodemographics influence consumer segmentation regarding store format choice and preferred meat packaging type in the German meat market. 667 consumers were segmented based on their purchasing frequency, store format choice, and preferred type of meat packaging using cluster analysis. Then, an exploratory factor analysis examined attitudinal factors. Finally, the factors and respondents’ sociodemographics were regressed onto the consumer clusters using multinomial logistic regression. The application of appropriately adapted marketing strategies can help increase patronage in the segments.
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