Characteristics of Styrene Removal With an AC/DC Streamer Corona Plasma System

This paper reports plasma-induced styrene removal characteristics in air with a homemade ac/dc plasma system. The removal efficiency and reaction kinetics are investigated in terms of source specifications, relative humidity (RH), initial concentrations, by-products, and specific plasma energy density. The result shows that, the larger the difference between peak and dc voltages, the better the removal efficiency. For an initial concentration of 100-110 ppm, the maximum efficiency is around 95% at the energy density of 37-39 J/L, and about 94 ppm is removed under a lower RH. It drops, however, to about 50 and 25 ppm for the RH of 64% and 89%, respectively. Meantime, with increasing humidity, the global plasma kinetics is changed from nonsignificant to significant linear radical termination processes. With regard to by-products, they are mainly benzaldehyde and phenylacetaldehyde.