title: Novel method for enhancing the destruction of environmental pollutants by the combination of multiple plasma discharges.
abstract: A novel, multistage, dielectric, packed-bed, plasma reactor has been developed and is used to efficiently destroy environmental pollutants, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). A three cell plasma reactor, operated at ambient pressure and low temperatures, is found to be an effective technology for complete VOC remediation in air. The combination of plasma cells in series can significantly improve the efficiency of VOC decomposition, but the combined destruction rate is not simply an additive effect, there is a synergistic enhancement related to the effect on the plasma chemistry of sequential processing in the three cells. At the same time, the formation of byproduct such as NOx is strongly suppressed, and it is possible to remediate toluene and ethylene in air, with no detectable formation of NOx or nitric acid.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, The University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, U.K.
authors.forename: Alice M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Harling
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Glover
authors.forename: J Christopher
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Whitehead
authors.forename: Kui
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000737:chemistry*; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000737:chemistry*; D014835:Volatilization
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D009930:Organic Chemicals