RESUMO
Decomposition of two typical volatile organic compounds (VOCs): toluene and methyl ethyl ketone (MEK), was investigated by introducing the complete energy yield (i.e. amount of VOCs totally converted to CO and CO2 for every 1â kWh of electrical usage) and specific energy density (SED) for the non-thermal plasma technology. Three dielectric barrier discharge reactors of which SED range was 55â J/L to 283â J/L at a flow rate of 1â L/min were connected in a 3-reactor arranged in series using interconnecting tubes in the inlets and outlets. As a result of the serial reactor design, the energy efficiency of the system improved, and in particular, 7% of increase was found in at the same level of energy consumption. The mixed phase of VOCs (toluene and MEK) showed MEK as a limiting species in this study. As the inlet concentration rose from 20 to 100â ppmv, both energy yield and complete energy yield increased from 0.8 to 9.2â g/kWh and from 0.8 to 2.3â g/kWh, respectively.