Characteristics of Back Corona Discharge in a Honeycomb Catalyst and Its Application for Treatment of Volatile Organic Compounds

Abstract

The main technical challenges for the treatment of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with plasma-assisted catalysis in industrial applications are large volume plasma generation under atmospheric pressure, byproduct control, and aerosol collection. To solve these problems, a back corona discharge (BCD) configuration has been designed to evenly generate nonthermal plasma in a honeycomb catalyst. Voltage-current curves, discharge images, and emission spectra have been used to characterize the plasma. Grade particle collection results and flow field visualization in the discharge zones show not only that the particles can be collected efficiently, but also that the pressure drop of the catalyst layer is relatively low. A three-stage plasma-assisted catalysis system, comprising a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) stage, BCD stage, and catalyst stage, was built to evaluate toluene treatment performance by BCD. The ozone analysis results indicate that BCD enhances the ozone decomposition by collecting aerosols and protecting the Ag-Mn-O catalyst downstream from aerosol contamination. The GC and FTIR results show that BCD contributes to toluene removal, especially when the specific energy input is low, and the total removal efficiency reaches almost 100%. Furthermore, this removal results in the emission of fewer byproducts.

Application of proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry for the assessment of toluene removal in a nonthermal plasma reactor

“…Gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy revealed the presence of organic by‐products, such as benzaldehyde and benzyl alcohol, on the surface of the catalyst or NTP reactor . Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy investigations indicated that formic acid was the only gas‐phase organic by‐product of the NTP removal of toluene . However, FTIR, GC‐FID, and GC‐MS are not able to detect all organic by‐products, and these measurement technologies provide only a limited amount of qualitative information and do not reveal the real‐time variations and the relationships between the formation of organic by‐products and the NTP operating conditions.…”

“…22 Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy investigations indicated that formic acid was the only gas-phase organic by-product of the NTP removal of toluene. 23 However, FTIR, GC-FID, and GC-MS are not able to detect all organic by-products, and these measurement technologies provide only a limited amount of qualitative information and do not reveal the real-time variations and the relationships between the formation of organic by-products and the NTP operating conditions. Thus, highly sensitive technology for the real-time identification and quantification of the organic by-products of VOC removal by NTP are required.…”

Ar plasma jet generation and its application for water and surface sterilization

“…Discharge power P is measured by V-Q Lissajous method. The measurement circuit has been detailed described in our previous works [19]. E. coli ATCC25922 is used for experiments.…”

Synergistic degradation performance and mechanism of 17β-estradiol by dielectric barrier discharge non-thermal plasma combined with Pt–TiO2

“…Feng et al [11] also demonstrated that the strong emission spectra in the discharge zone were observed at 337. 13,357.69, and 380.49 nm, and the intensity of UV light was less than 2500 a.u.. As mentioned above, the UV light with wavelength less than 400 nm could be generated in a discharge system, which can be used as a lamp-house to induce the photocatalysis of TiO 2 [12].…”