Removal of atrazine in water by combination of activated carbon and dielectric barrier discharge.
Efficiency of modern wastewater treatment plants to remove or decompose persistent contaminants in low concentration is often insufficient to meet the demands imposed by governmental laws. Novel, efficient and cheap methods are required to address this global issue. We developed a new type of plasma reactor, in which atrazine decomposition by atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) in dry air is combined with micropollutant adsorption on activated carbon textile and with extra bubbling of generated ozone. Investigation of reaction kinetics and by-product analysis shows that increasing input power with a factor 3.5 leads to deeper atrazine oxidation without significantly changing energy yield of atrazine removal. By-products of first and later generations are detected with HPLC-MS analysis in water and adsorbed on the activated carbon textile. Our reactor is compared in energy efficiency with reactors described in literature, showing that combination of plasma discharge with pollutant adsorption and ozone recycling is attractive for future applications of water treatment.
Department of Applied Physics, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41 B4, 9000 Gent, Belgium. Electronic address: patrick.vanraes@ugent.be.
Patrick
P
Vanraes
Department of Applied Physics, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41 B4, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
Gert
G
Willems
Department of Applied Physics, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41 B4, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
Anton
A
Nikiforov
Separation Science Group, Department of Organic Chemistry, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281 S4-bis, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
Pieter
P
Surmont
Separation Science Group, Department of Organic Chemistry, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281 S4-bis, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
Frederic
F
Lynen
Research Group Molecular Odor Chemistry, Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems (M2S), KU Leuven, Technology Campus, Gebroeders De Smetstraat 1, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
Jeroen
J
Vandamme
Research Group Molecular Odor Chemistry, Department of Microbial and Molecular Systems (M2S), KU Leuven, Technology Campus, Gebroeders De Smetstraat 1, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
Jim
J
Van Durme
Department of Industrial Biological Sciences, Ghent University, Graaf Karel de Goedelaan 5, 8500 Kortrijk, Belgium.
Yannick P
YP
Verheust
Department of Industrial Biological Sciences, Ghent University, Graaf Karel de Goedelaan 5, 8500 Kortrijk, Belgium.
Stijn W H
SW
Van Hulle
Department of Industrial Biological Sciences, Ghent University, Graaf Karel de Goedelaan 5, 8500 Kortrijk, Belgium.
Ann
A
Dumoulin
Department of Applied Physics, Ghent University, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41 B4, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
Christophe
C
Leys
Advanced oxidation process; Degradation by-products; Desorption analysis; Electrical energy per order; Ozonation