Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) removal in non-thermal plasma double dielectric barrier discharge reactor

Muhammad Farooq Mustafa; Xindi Fu; Yanjun Liu; Yawar Abbas; Hongtao Wang; Wenjing Lu

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.01.021

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) removal in non-thermal plasma double dielectric barrier discharge reactor

J Hazard Mater. 2018 Apr 5:347:317-324. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.01.021. Epub 2018 Jan 9.

Authors

Muhammad Farooq Mustafa¹, Xindi Fu², Yanjun Liu², Yawar Abbas², Hongtao Wang¹, Wenjing Lu³

Affiliations

¹ School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, PR China; Key Laboratory for Solid Waste Management and Environment Safety (Tsinghua University), Ministry of Education of China, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, PR China.
² School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, PR China.
³ School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, PR China; Key Laboratory for Solid Waste Management and Environment Safety (Tsinghua University), Ministry of Education of China, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, PR China. Electronic address: luwenjing@mail.tsinghua.edu.cn.

PMID: 29331811
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.01.021

Abstract

Non-thermal plasma (NTP) an emerging technology to treat volatile organic compounds (VOCs) present in unhygienic point source air streams. In present study, double dielectric barrier discharge (DDBD) reactors were used for the first time to evaluate the removal efficiency of VOCs mixture of different nature at constant experimental conditions (input power 16-65.8 W, VOCs mixture feeding rate 1-6 L/min, 100-101 ppm inlet concentration of individual VOC). Reactor A and B with discharge gap at 6 mm and 3 mm respectively, were used in current study. When treated at an input power of 53.7 W with gas feeding rate of 1 L/min in DDBD reactor A, removal efficiency of the VOCs were: tetrachloroethylene (100%), toluene (100%), trichloroethylene (100%), benzene (100%), ethyl acetate (100%) and carbon disulfide (88.30%); whereas in reactor B, the removal efficiency of all VOCs were 100%. Plasma-catalyst (Pt-Sn/Al₂O₃, BaTiO₃ and HZSM-5) synergistic effect on VOCs removal efficiency was also investigated. Highest removal efficiency i.e 100% was observed for each compound with BaTiO₃ and HZSM-5 at an input power 65.8 W. However, integrating NTP with BaTiO₃ and HZSM-5 leads to enhanced removal performance of VOCs mixture with high activity, increase in energy efficiency and suppression of unwanted byproducts.

Keywords: Double dielectric barrier discharge; Energy efficiency; Non-thermal plasma; Plasma-catalyst reaction; Volatile organic compounds.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't