Properties of corona discharge in a hot chamber

Summary form only given, as follows. The corona discharge system has been studied lately for its potential application to reduce NO/sub x/ and SO/sub x/ gas emission, where high electrical voltage (typically 50 kV) is applied to electrodes, inducing electrical breakdown in an atmospheric pressure and generating a plasma volume. One of the important issues in the corona discharge system is an effective generation of plasmas in the system. The electrical power needed for the plasma generation is one of the main operating costs of the corona discharge system. Less power consumption for plasma generation makes the corona discharge system more economical. Air pollutants are very often emitted from hot chambers such as municipal incinerators or electric power plants. It is therefore necessary to investigate influence of the chamber temperature on properties of the corona discharge system. From present work, we found that the critical voltage V/sub c/ required for the corona-discharge breakdown is inversely proportional to the chamber temperature T. The electrical energy w/sub c/ required for corona-discharge breakdown is inversely proportional to the square of the chamber temperature T. Thus, the electrical energy consumption for corona-discharge system decreases significantly as the temperature increases. The plasma generation by corona discharge in a hot chamber is much more efficient than that in a cold chamber.