Experimental results comparing pulsed corona and dielectric barrier discharges for pollution control

A comparison has been made of the gaseous pollution removal efficiency for three different nonthermal plasma reactors. A pulsed corona discharge and a low-frequency AC-driven dielectric-barrier discharge had similar removal efficiencies for trichloroethylene (TCE), methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) and methylene chloride (MECL) in dry air at room temperature. Also, the removal efficiency was similar between both a pulsed and AC-driven dielectric barrier discharge for TCE in dry air at room temperature. Even though a large increase in breakdown field occurs in pulsed discharges, the similarity in removal efficiency can be explained if the chemical reaction pathways for these compounds in dry air are oxygen atom-initiated. The change in removal efficiency with gas temperature is pronounced for MECL in air but has a weaker dependence for MEK in air which is consistent with the rate-constant temperature dependence found in the literature.