Degradation of Synthetic Dyeing Wastewater by Underwater Electrical Discharge Processes

Electrical discharge treatments of synthetic dyeing wastewater were carried out with two different systems： underwater pulsed electrical discharge （UPED） and underwater dielectric barrier discharge （UDBD）. Reactive Blue 4 （RB4） and Acid Red 4 （AR4） were used as model contaminants for the synthetic wastewater. The performance of the aforementioned systems was compared with respect to the chromaticity removal and the energy requirement. The results showed that the present electrical discharge systems were very effective for degradation of the dyes. The dependences of the dye degradation rate on treatment time, initial dye concentration, electrical energy, and the type of working gas including air, 02, and N2 were examined. The change in the initial dye concentration did not largely affect the degradation of either RB4 or AR4. The energy delivered to the UPED system was only partially utilized for generating reactive species capable of degrading the dyes, leading to higher energy requirement than the UDBD system. Among the working gases, the best performance was observed with O2. As the degradation proceeded, the concentration of total dissolved solids and the solution conductivity kept increasing while pH showed a decreasing trend, revealing that the dyes were effectively mineralized.

Regeneration of C_4H_(10) dry reforming catalyst by nonthermal plasma

Carbon deposition via coke formation is one of the critical problems causing catalyst deactivation during the reforming of hydrocarbons. An effort was made to regenerate the catalyst （Ni/γ-alumina） by oxidation methods. Two approaches were carded out for the regeneration of the deactivated catalyst. The first one involves the plasma treatment of the deactivated catalyst in the presence of dry air over a temperature range of 300-500℃, while the second one only the thermal treatment in the same temperature range. The performance of the regenerated catalyst was evaluated in terms of C4H10 and CO2 conversions and the physicochemical characteristics were examined using a surface area analyzer, an elemental analyzer, scanning electron microscopy （SEM） and transmission electron microscopy （TEM）. It was observed that the carbon deposit （coke） on the catalyst was about 9.89 wt% after reforming C4H10 for 5 h at 540℃. The simple thermal treatment at 400 ℃ reduced carbon content to 6.59 wt% whereas it was decreased to 3.25 wt% by the plasma and heat combination. The specific surface area was fully restored to the original state by the plasma-assisted regeneration at 500℃. As far as the catalytic activity is concerned, the fresh and regenerated catalysts exhibited similar C4H10 and CO2 conversion efficiencies.

In-situ production of ozone and ultraviolet light using a barrier discharge reactor for wastewater treatment

A dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor consisting of water-filled dielectric tube electrodes was used for the treatment of wastewater. The inner dielectric tube, which acted as the discharging electrode, was filled with an aqueous electrolyte solution. The outer dielectric tube, which served as the other electrode, was in contact with the wastewater, which was grounded. The present reactor system was energy-efficient for the production of ozone, not only because the perfect contact between the aqueous electrode and the dielectric surface minimized the loss of the electrical energy, but also because the DBD reactor was cooled by the wastewater. In addition, the ultraviolet (UV) light produced in the DBD reactor was able to assist in the wastewater treatment since the quartz tube used as the dielectric material was UV-transparent. The performance of the present DBD system was evaluated using a synthetic wastewater formed from distilled water and an azo dye, amaranth. The experimental parameters were the concentration of the electrolyte in the aqueous electrode, the discharge power, the initial pH of the wastewater and the concentration of hydrogen peroxide added to the wastewater. The wastewater treatment system was found to be effective for achieving decomposition of the dye.