Electrodeless microwave plasma-torch at atmospheric pressure

Summary form only given. Increasing environmental awareness and regulation have motivated research into new methods to remediate toxins from atmospheric pressure gas streams. Plasma remediation was identified as a promising technology treating contaminated gas streams and air. Plasma remediation of toxic gas streams from mobile emitting sources (i.e., Nox, Sox, soot emission from diesel truck engines) and cleaning processes (i.e., global warming gases) require inexpensive, compact, and reliable systems which efficiently and selectively convert the toxic gas to benign or more treatable products. Environmental clean-up and energy efficiency enhancement utilize plasma generated from air at the atmospheric pressure. Electrodes of the arc plasma torches oxidize very quickly due to the oxygen molecules in air. That is why the conventional thermal plasma torch can not be used in environmental applications. In order to solve this difficult problem, we developed a thermal plasma source operating without electrodes. One of electrodeless torches is the microwave plasma which can produce plasmas in large quantities. We can generate plasma at the atmospheric pressure by making use of magnetrons in microwave-ovens. Most of the magnetrons are operated at the frequency of 2.45 GHz.