Decontamination of drinking water using a pulsed spark plasma discharge

This paper presents experiments conducted using a high voltage pulsed spark plasma discharge having the following parameters: peak-to-peak voltage 25 kV, peak-to-peak current 400 A, pulse duration 1.8 mus, frequency 1-50 Hz and energy per pulse 2 J. This study demonstrates that a rather low energy input of 75 J/L of water is required to obtain a one-log reduction in Escherichia coli concentration. It was also found that water treated with plasma has a prolonged resistance to E. coli even hours after treatment. Similar work has been done by other researchers and attempts were made to understand the underlying mechanism.