Disposal of biphenyl with low pressure plasma

To destroy dioxin´s, the toxic polynuclear molecular compounds, a DC argon plasma of 0.02 MPa to 0.1 MPa in pressure was applied. Because of the terrible toxicity of Dioxin´s, biphenyl, which is of the same polynuclear molecular structure like dioxin´s but nontoxic, was wed as the test chemical. The test current was 50 A, 100 A and 150 A, respectively. The plasma temperature was measured to be higher than 8000 K. The temperature characteristics of the low pressure plasma was discussed. By analyses of the heat transfer from the plasma to the biphenyl corpuscles, the necessary time for disposal of biphenyl corpuscles in Ar, N₂, He and H₂ plasma was calculated