title: Effluents from MBT plants: plasma techniques for the treatment of VOCs.
abstract: Mechanical-biological treatments (MBTs) of urban waste are growing in popularity in many European countries. Recent studies pointed out that their contribution in terms of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other air pollutants is not negligible. Compared to classical removal technologies, non-thermal plasmas (NTP) showed better performances and low energy consumption when applied to treat lowly concentrated streams. Therefore, to study the feasibility of the application of NTP to MBTs, a Dielectric Barrier Discharge reactor was applied to treat a mixture of air and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), to simulate emissions from MBTs. The removal efficiency of MEK was linearly dependent upon time, power and specific input energy. Only 2-4% of MEK was converted to carbon dioxide (CO2), the remaining carbon being involved in the formation of byproducts (methyl nitrate and 2,3-butanedione, especially). For future development of pilot-scale reactors, acting on residence time, power, convective flow and catalysts will help finding a compromise between energy consumption, desired abatement and selectivity to CO2.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, Via Mesiano 77, I-38123 Trento, Italy. Electronic address: marco.ragazzi@unitn.it.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ragazzi
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Trento, Via Sommarive 5, I-38123 Trento, Italy. Electronic address: paolo.tosi@unitn.it.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tosi
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, Via Mesiano 77, I-38123 Trento, Italy. Electronic address: elena.rada@unitn.it.
authors.forename: Elena Cristina
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Rada
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnologies and Life Sciences, University of Insubria, Via G.B. Vico 46, I-21100 Varese, Italy. Electronic address: vincenzo.torretta@uninsubria.it.
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Torretta
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento, Via Mesiano 77, I-38123 Trento, Italy; Department of Biotechnologies and Life Sciences, University of Insubria, Via G.B. Vico 46, I-21100 Varese, Italy. Electronic address: marco.schiavon@unitn.it.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schiavon
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000737:chemistry*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002074:Butanones / Q000737:chemistry*; D002384:Catalysis; D058626:Plasma Gases / Q000737:chemistry; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*; D064091:Waste Disposal Facilities
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D002074:Butanones; D058626:Plasma Gases; D055549:Volatile Organic Compounds; C005222:methylethyl ketone
keywords: Air treatment; Dielectric barrier discharge; Mechanical–biological treatments; Methyl ethyl ketone; Non-thermal plasma; VOCs