Simultaneous oxidation of NO,SO_2 and Hg^0 from flue gas by pulsed corona discharge

A process capable of simultaneously oxidizing NO, SO2, and Hg^0 was proposed, using a nigh-voltage and short-duration positive pulsed corona discharge. By focusing on NO, SO2, and Hg^0 oxidation efficiencies, the influences of pulse peak voltage, pulse frequency, initial concentration, electrode number, residence time and water vapor addition were investigated. The results indicate that NO, SO2 and Hg^0 oxidation efficiencies depend primarily on the radicals （OH, HO2, O） and the active species （O3, H2O2, etc.） produced by the pulsed corona discharge. The NO, SO2 and Hg^0 oxidation efficiencies could be improved as pulse peak voltage, pulse frequency, electrode number and residence time increased, but they were reduced with increasing initial concentrations. By adding water vapor, the SO2 oxidation efficiency was improved remarkably, while the NO oxidation efficiency decreased slightly. In our experiments, the simultaneous NO, SO2, and Hg^0 oxidation efficiencies reached to 40%, 98%, and 55% with the initial concentrations 479 mg/m^3, 1040 mg/m^3, and 15.0 μg/m^3, respectively.

Numerical simulation and experimental validation of a direct current air corona discharge under atmospheric pressure

Air corona discharge is one of the critical problems associated with high-voltage equipment. Investigating the corona mechanism plays a key role in enhancing the electrical insulation performance. An improved self-consistent multi-component two-dimensional plasma hybrid model is presented for the simulation of a direct current atmospheric pressure corona discharge in air. The model is based on plasma hydrodynamic and chemical models, and includes 12 species and 26 reactions. In addition, the photoionization effect is introduced into the model. The simulation on a bar-plate electrode configuration with an inter-electrode gap of 5.0 mm is carried out. The discharge voltage- current characteristics and the current density distribution predicted by the hybrid model agree with the experimental measurements. In addition, the dynamics of volume charged species generation, discharge current waveform, current density distribution at an electrode, charge density, electron temperature, and electric field variations are investigated in detail based on the model. The results indicate that the model can contribute valuable insights into the physics of an air plasma discharge.

Removal of adhesive dusts from flue gas using corona discharges with spraying water

Effective removal of adhesive and fine dusts from flue gas is very difficult. A new method of electrostatic precipitation of the corona discharges with spraying water(CDSW) was introduced. A new electrode configuration and the circulation spraying of water were employed in the method. The efficient electrostatic precipitation for adhesive and fine dusts can be accomplished without any drain water during a long operating period. The fundamental structure, discharge characteristics, mechanism of spraying and precipitation principle of the electrostatic precipitation using CDSW were described and analyzed. The V I characteristics, spraying state, supplying water quantity, influence of temperature and clean of the electrodes were researched in series experiments. The treating effects of circulating spraying using the corona plasma at the same time of electrostatic precipitation were investigated. The fundamental theories and experimental data were proposed, in order to effectively remove the adhesive dusts from flue gas using CDSW in practice.

Hydrogen Production from Methanol Using Corona Discharges

Hydrogen production at room temperature from liquid methanol has been conducted using corona discharge. The content of water in methanol solution has a significant effect on this production. When water concentration increases from 1.0% to 16.7%,the methanol conversion rate changes from 0.196 to 0.284 mol/h. An important finding in this investigation is the formation of ethylene glycol as a major by-product. The yield of ethylene glycol is ranged from 0.0045 to 0.0075 mol/h based on the water content.

Factors Influencing the Electron Yield of Needle-Ring Pulsed Corona Discharge Electron Source for Negative Ion Mobility Spectrometer

A simple negative ion mobility spectrometer （IMS） is designed and used to investi- gate the factors that influence the number and efficiency of electrons generated by the needle-ring pulsed corona discharge electron source. Simulation with Ansoft Maxwell 12 is carried out to analyze the electric field distribution within the IMS, and to offer the basis and foundation for analyzing the measurement results. The measurement results of the quantities of electrons show that when the drift electric field strength and the ring inner diameter rise, both the number of ef- fective electrons and the effective electron rate are increased. When the discharge voltage becomes stronger, the number of effective electrons goes up while the effective electron rate goes down. In light of the simulation results, mechanisms underlying the effects of drift electric field strength, ring inner diameter, and discharge voltage on the effective electron number and effective electron rate are discussed. These will make great sense for designing negative ion mode IMS using the needle-ring pulsed corona discharge as the electron source.

Degradation of Organic Compounds by Active Species Sprayed in a Dielectric Barrier Corona Discharge System

Investigation was made into the degradation of organic compounds by a dielectric barrier corona discharge （DBCD） system. The DBCD, consisting of a quartz tube, a concentric high voltage electrode and a net wrapped to the external wall （used as ground electrode）, was introduced to generate active species which were sprayed into the organic solution through an aerator fixed on the bottom of the tube. The effect of four factors-the discharge voltage, gas flow rate, solution conductivity, and pH of wastewater, on the degradation efficiency of phenol was assessed. The obtained results demonstrated that this process was an effective method for phenol degradation. The degradation rate was enhanced with the increase in power supplied. The degradation efficiency in alkaline conditions was higher than those in acid and neutral conditions. The optimal gas flow rate for phenol degradation in the system was 1.6 L/min, while the solution conductivity had little effect on the degradation.

Catalyst assisted destruction of trichloro ethylene and toluene in corona discharges

Destruction of trichloro ethylene (C 2HCl 3) by pulsed corona discharge reactor packed with alumina pellets and in absence of packing was investigated. Higher conversion of C 2HCl 3 was observed in presence of alumina than in absence of packing. Furthermore CO/CO 2 ratio in the by products was found to shift in favor of CO 2 by alumina compared with absence of packing. Influence of catalyst porosity on C 2HCl 3 destruction and on by product ozone generation during the processing was also studied. Both alumina Ⅰ and alumina Ⅱ show similar improvement in C 2HCl 3 destruction. However, more important observation was that alumina Ⅰ produces higher by product ozone, while, alumina Ⅱ produces lower by product ozone, than in the case of no packing. The catalyst porosity effect was also investigated for destruction of toluene and was found to be similar. Intermediates of C 2HCl 3 destruction, as identified by GC MS, were COCl 2, CH 2Cl 2CHCl 3, CCl 4 and C 2HCl 5. In presence of alumina the amount of these intermediates was much reduced, indicating the catalytic function of alumina.

Research on Nanosecond Pulse Corona Discharge with Cross Magnetic Field Applied

An application of magnetic field to the nanosecond pulse corona discharge is investigated. A cylinder reactor with different corona electrodes is set up for experimental study. A magnetic field with its direction perpendicular to the corona discharge is applied. Different discharge images are taken under single nanosecond pulse with a high sensitive UV-visible light imagine recorder. Experimental results show that with a cross magnetic field the nanosecond corona discharge both generates paths and develops homogeneously in space more than that without the magnetic field. The results may lead to a possibility to apply a cross magnetic field on nanosecond pulse corona discharge for getting higher desulfurization efficiency.

Removal of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) Mixture by Multi-Pin-Mesh Corona Discharge Combined with Pulsed High-Voltage

Removal of single component and binary mixtures of benzene and m-xylene using a multi-pin-mesh reactor was studied to find the decomposition characteristics, carbon balance and CO2 selectivity. The decomposition rate of benzene in mixture was approximately 16% lower than that of single component benzene. However, the decomposition rate of m-xylene in mixture was slightly higher than that of single component m-xylene. Carbon balance of the mixture decomposition process achieved a lower level than that of single component benzene/m-xylene. Increase in the specific input energy was helpful to improve CO2 selectivity in the single component decomposition process, while the specific input energy had a negligible effect on CO2 selectivity in the mixture decomposition process. By changing the oxygen content in background gas, we found that different types of radicals showed different reaction activities toward benzene and m-xylene. Benzene was more likely to react with nitrogen-containing radicals, while m-xylene was more likely to react with oxygen-containing radicals.

Removal of NO and SO2 in Corona Discharge Plasma Reactor with Water Film

In this paper, a novel type of a corona discharge plasma reactor was designed, which consists of needle-plate-combined electrodes, in which a series of needle electrodes are placed in a glass container filled with flue gas, and a plate electrode is immersed in the water. Based on this model, the removal of NO and SO2 was tested experimentally. In addition, the effect of streamer polarity on the reduction of SO2 and NO was investigated in detail. The experimental results show that the corona wind formed between the high-voltage needle electrode and the water by corona discharge enhances the cleaning efficiency of the flue gas because of the presence of water, and the cleaning efficiency will increase with the increase of applied dc voltage within a definite range. The removal efficiency of SO2 up to 98%, and about 85% of NOx removal under suitable conditions is obtained in our experiments.

Electrical Characteristics of Pulsed Corona Discharge Plasmas in Chitosan Solution

Pulsed discharge plasma has exhibited active potential to prepare low molecular weight chitosan. In the present study, the viscosity of ehitosan solution was decreased noticeably after treated with pulsed corona discharge plasma. An experimental investigation on electrical characteristics of pulsed corona discharge plasma in chitosan solution was conducted with a view toward getting insight into discharge process. Factors affecting I-V curve, single pulse injec- tion energy and pulse width were studied. Experimental results showed positive effect of pulsed peak voltage on discharge plasma in chitosan solution. Pulse-forming capacitor greatly influenced the discharge form, and 4 nF was observed as a suitable value for efficiently generating stable discharge plasmas. As the electrode distance was larger than 10 ram, it had slight impact on dis- charge plasma due to the excellent conductive-property of chitosan solution. The injection energy significantly increased with air flow rate, while the pulse width hardly changed as the air flow rate increased from 0.5 m^3/h to 1.0 m^3/h. This study is expected to provide reference for promoting the application of pulsed corona discharge plasma to ehitosan solution treatment.

Pulsed Corona Discharges and Their Applications in Toxic VOCs Abatement

Plasma processes are among the emerging technologies for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) abatement[1]. Both thermal plasmas and non-equilibrium plasmas (cold plasmas) are being developed for VOCs cleanup[2,3]. Particularly, pulsed corona discharges offer several advantages over conventional VOCs abatement techniques[4-7]. To optimize the existing technology and to develop it further, there is need to understand the mechanisms involved in plasma chemical reactions. Furthermore, it is strongly desirable to be able to predict the behavior of new VOCs in non-equilibrium plasma environment from the data known for a few representative compounds. Pulsed corona discharge technique is introduced here with citation of relevant literature. Fundamental principles, useful for predicting the VOCs' decomposition behavior, have been worked out from the published literature. Latest developments in the area, targeted to minimize the energy losses, improve the VOCs destruction efficiency and reduce the generation of unwanted organic and inorganic by-products, are presented.

Negative Corona Discharge Ion Source Under Ambient Conditions with Mini Line-cylinder Electrodes

A novel ambient negative corona discharge ion source with mini line-cylinder electrodes is designed. The diameters of inner and outer electrode are 0.16 and 4 mm respectively. With a special assembly method, a perfect coaxiality of the two electrodes is obtained. An injection system utilizing a temperature control technique, achieves a constant and stable concentration of the sample, which is critical to the experiment. The formulas of the corona onset voltage of line-cylinder electrodes are also introduced. The experiment results show that negative substances such as formic acid and acetic acid can be ionized under ambient conditions. When combined with micro electrical mechanical system fabricationprocess, the volume of the ion source can be reduced dramatically, but there is an undesirable surface discharge. To solve the surface discharge problem, an improved structure was designed and tested. The simplicity of the interface of the ion source makes it suitable for mass spectrometer, micro mass spectrometer, ion mobility spectrometer, and high-field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometer applications.

Efficient direction-independent fog harvesting using a corona discharge device with a multi-electrode structure

Efflcient collection of water from fog can effectively alleviate the problem of water shortages in foggy but water-scarce areas,such as deserts,islands and so on.Unlike inefflcient fog meshes,corona discharge can charge water droplets and further enhance the water-collecting effect.This study proposes a novel multi-electrode collecting structure that can achieve efflcient and direction-independent water collection from fog.The multi-electrode structure consists of three parts:a charging electrode,an intercepting electrode and a ground electrode.Four types of watercollecting structures are compared experimentally,and the collection rates from a traditional fog mesh,a wire-mesh electrode with fog coming from a high-voltage electrode,a wire-mesh electrode with fog coming from a ground electrode and a multi-electrode structure are 2–3 g h^(-1),100–120 g h^(-1),60–80 g h^(-1)and 200–220 g h^(-1),respectively.The collection rate of the multielectrode structure is 100–150 times that of a traditional fog mesh and 2–4 times that of a wiremesh electrode.These results demonstrate the superiority of the multi-electrode structure in fog collection.In addition,the motion equation of charged droplets in an electric fleld is also derived,and the optimization strategy of electrode spacing is also discussed.This structure can be applied not only to fog collection,but also to air puriflcation,factory waste gas treatment and other flelds.

Conversion of Methane to Hydrogen via Pulsed Corona Discharge

Experiments are performed to develop a pulsed corona discharge system for the conversion of methane to hydrogen at atmospheric pressure (≈760 Torr) without using a catalyst. The corona discharge was energized by 10-12 μs wide voltage pulses (≤7 kV) at a repetition rate of about 1.0-1.5 kHz. The residual gases were characterized by mass spectrometry. The conversion of methane is as high as 50.8% producing the 70% yield of hydrogen. The influences of argon on the discharge of methane were studied. This result could be useful for the mass production of hydrogen in both academic and industrial point of view.

The Experimental Investigations of Dielectric Barrier Discharge and Pulse Corona Discharge in Air Cleaning

The dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) and pulse corona discharge(PCD) plasma generator was used to remove NH3, H2S, C7H8 etc. from atmosphere. The principle and characteristic of the two ways was discussed in the article. The test shows the result of PCD is better than that of DBD.

Electro-Hydrodynamics and Kinetic Modeling of Dry and Humid Air Flows Activated by Corona Discharges

The present work is devoted to the 2D simulation of a point-to-plane Atmospheric Corona Discharge Reactor （ACDR） powered by a DC high voltage supply. The corona reactor is periodically crossed by thin mono filamentary streamers with a natural repetition frequency of some tens of kHz. The study compares the results obtained in dry air and in air mixed with a small amount of water vapour （humid air）. The simulation involves the electro-dynamics~ chemical kinetics and neutral gas hydrodynamics phenomena that influence the kinetics of the chemical species transformation. Each discharge lasts about one hundred of a nanosecond while the post- discharge occurring between two successive discharges lasts one hundred of a microsecond. The ACDR is crossed by a lateral dry or humid air flow initially polluted with 400 ppm of NO. After 5 ms, the time corresponding to the occurrence of 50 successive discharge/post-discharge phases, a higher NO removal rate and a lower ozone production rate are found in humid air. This change is due to the presence of the HO2 species formed from the H primary radical in the discharge zone.

The enhanced aerosol deposition by bipolar corona discharge arrays

The corona discharges provide an efficient way to induce precipitation or eliminate fog by increasing ion density in the open air.In this paper,one bipolar corona discharge array(positive and negative high voltage coupled simultaneously)which can generate high densities of positive and negative ions is developed.The comparison between bipolar corona discharge array and unipolar corona discharge array(positive or negative coupled only)indicates that bipolar corona discharge array can generate~3 times higher ion density than unipolar corona discharge array.More charged aerosols are produced through collisions between ions and aerosols.The collision rate between aerosols is increased substantially by the attractive forces between positively and negatively charged aerosols.The deposition of aerosols induced by bipolar discharges is 25.7%higher than that of unipolar discharges at the humidity super-saturation condition.Therefore,the bipolar corona discharge system is a new option for the large scale ion sources used for artificial weather modification.

Treatment of Dyeing Wastewater by Using Positive Pulsed Corona Discharge to Water Surface

This study investigated the treatment of textile-dyeing wastewater by using an electrical discharge technique （positive pulsed corona discharge）. The high-voltage electrode was placed above the surface Of the wastewater while the ground electrode was submerged in the wastewater. The electrical discharge starting at the tip of the high voltage electrode propagated toward the surface of the wastewater, producing various oxidative radicals and ozone. Oxygen was used as the working gas instead of air to prevent nitrogen oxides from forming. The simulated wastewater was made up with amaranth, which is a kind of azo dye. The results obtained showed that the chromaticity of the wastewater was almost completely removed within an hour. The ultraviolet/visible spectra of the wastewater treated by the electrical discharge revealed that the total hydrocarbon level also decreased significantly.

Influence of shape effect on dynamic surface charge transport mechanism of cellular electret after corona discharge

Surface charge accumulation and transport on cellular polypropylene play an important role in nanogenerators,which could have a potential impact on energy harvesting and wearable devices for zero carbon energy systems and the internet of things.Different shapes have different charge accumulation and decay characteristics of the polymer.Therefore,we studied the influence of the sample’s shape on the surface charge decay by experiment and modeling.The surface potential of square and circular cellular polypropylene was measured by a two-dimensional surface potential measurement system with electrostatic capacitive probe.The experimental result shows that the surface potential distribution of the square sample dissipates non-uniformly from the bell shape to a one-sided collapsed shape,while that of the circular sample dissipates uniformly from the bell shape to the crater-like shape.Moreover,the simulated results of the initial surface potential distributions of the square and circular cellular polypropylene are consistent with the experimental results.The investigation demonstrates that the charge transport process is correlated with the shape of the sample,which provides significant reference for designing electret material used for highly efficient nanogenerators.