Molecular Emission Spectroscopy as a Potential Diagnostic Tool in Plasma-Assisted Incineration

Abstract

This paper reports on a simple analytical procedure used to demonstrate the technical feasibility of adaptive plasma-assisted incineration. APAI is a novel concept that addresses current difficulties in the treatment of hazardous organic waste. It features continual optimization of a plasma afterburner's operating conditions for cost-effective destruction of persistent contaminants under variable feed loads. Hence, on-line composition monitoring is a key element of the process. A diagnostic method was specifically developed for an experimental model system that required optical measurements from the jet of a 25–kW induction plasma torch. The method used photodiode array detection of visible emission from the Swan band system of C2 to track the destruction of organic compounds. This rapid, simple, and inexpensive procedure proved adequate for demonstration purposes.