Air pollution is a major health problem in developing countries and has adverse effects on human health and the environment. Non-thermal plasma is an effective air pollution treatment technology. In this research, the...Air pollution is a major health problem in developing countries and has adverse effects on human health and the environment. Non-thermal plasma is an effective air pollution treatment technology. In this research, the performance of a dielectric barrier discharge(DBD) plasma reactor packed with glass and ceramic pellets was evaluated in the removal of SO_2 as a major air pollutant from air in ambient temperature. The response surface methodology was used to evaluate the effect of three key parameters(concentration of gas, gas flow rate, and voltage) as well as their simultaneous effects and interactions on the SO2 removal process. Reduced cubic models were derived to predict the SO_2 removal efficiency(RE) and energy yield(EY). Analysis of variance results showed that the packed-bed reactors(PBRs) studied were more energy efficient and had a high SO2 RE which was at least four times more than that of the non-packed reactor. Moreover, the results showed that the performance of ceramic pellets was better than that of glass pellets in PBRs. This may be due to the porous surface of ceramic pellets which allows the formation of microdischarges in the fine cavities of a porous surface when placed in a plasma discharge zone. The maximum SO_2 RE and EY were obtained at 94% and 0.81 g kWh^(-1),respectively under the optimal conditions of a concentration of gas of 750 ppm, a gas flow rate of 2lmin^(-1), and a voltage of 18 kV, which were achieved by the DBD plasma packed with ceramic pellets. Finally, the results of the model's predictions and the experiments showed good agreement.展开更多
基金financially supported by the Tarbiat Modares University of Tehran。
文摘Air pollution is a major health problem in developing countries and has adverse effects on human health and the environment. Non-thermal plasma is an effective air pollution treatment technology. In this research, the performance of a dielectric barrier discharge(DBD) plasma reactor packed with glass and ceramic pellets was evaluated in the removal of SO_2 as a major air pollutant from air in ambient temperature. The response surface methodology was used to evaluate the effect of three key parameters(concentration of gas, gas flow rate, and voltage) as well as their simultaneous effects and interactions on the SO2 removal process. Reduced cubic models were derived to predict the SO_2 removal efficiency(RE) and energy yield(EY). Analysis of variance results showed that the packed-bed reactors(PBRs) studied were more energy efficient and had a high SO2 RE which was at least four times more than that of the non-packed reactor. Moreover, the results showed that the performance of ceramic pellets was better than that of glass pellets in PBRs. This may be due to the porous surface of ceramic pellets which allows the formation of microdischarges in the fine cavities of a porous surface when placed in a plasma discharge zone. The maximum SO_2 RE and EY were obtained at 94% and 0.81 g kWh^(-1),respectively under the optimal conditions of a concentration of gas of 750 ppm, a gas flow rate of 2lmin^(-1), and a voltage of 18 kV, which were achieved by the DBD plasma packed with ceramic pellets. Finally, the results of the model's predictions and the experiments showed good agreement.
