Decomposition of volatile organic compounds using gliding arc discharge plasma.

This work provides a systematic review on the decomposition of volatile organic pollutants in flue gas through the gliding arc (GA) plasma technology. To begin with, the basic mechanisms of GA plasma generation are summarized and three characteristic stages existed during the GA plasma generation process are revealed: gas breakdown stage, equilibrium stage, and non-equilibrium stage. Then, the types of GA reactors are comparatively illustrated. Possible destruction mechanisms of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) by GA plasma are discussed by taking chloroform, benzene, and methanol as examples. Furthermore, the effects of many operating parameters on the VOCs destruction efficiency are comprehensively analyzed. Simultaneously, the product distribution, energy cost, technical and economic during the whole decomposition process are considered. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of GA plasma and its further development trend are concluded from the academic and industrial application of GA plasma in VOCs decomposition.Implications: This paper comprehensively describes the principle, characteristics, research progress and engineering application examples of the degradation of volatile organics by gliding arc discharge plasma, so that readers can fully understand the degradation of volatile organics by gliding arc discharge plasma and provide theoretical basis for the industrial application of the degradation of volatile organics by gliding arc discharge plasma.

Decomposition of volatile organic compounds using corona discharge plasma technology.

This paper explores the application of corona plasma technology as a tool in treatment of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The review introduces the principle of corona discharge and describes the characteristics of plasma, especially of various corona plasma reactors. By summarizing the main features of such reactors, this paper provides a brief background to different power sources and reactor configurations and their application to VOC treatment design. Considering chlorinated compounds, benzene series and sulfur compounds, this paper reveals the probable mechanism of corona plasma in VOC degradation. Additionally, the effects of numerous technical parameters - such as reactor structure, shape and materials of electrodes, and humidity - are analyzed comprehensively. Product distribution, energy efficiency and economic benefits are invoked as factors to evaluate the performance of VOC degradation. Finally, the practical application of corona plasma and its advantages are briefly introduced. The review aims to illustrate the enormous potential of corona plasma technology in the treatment of VOCs, and identifies future directions. Implications: This paper comprehensively describes the principle, characteristics, research progress and engineering application examples of the degradation of volatile organics by corona discharge plasma, to provide a theoretical basis for the industrial application of this process.

Decolorization of Acid Orange 7 solution by gas-liquid gliding arc discharge plasma.

The decolorization of 180 microM aqueous solutions of Acid Orange 7 (AO7) by means of a non-thermal plasma technique (i.e., the gas-liquid gliding arc discharge, which is generated between at least two metal electrodes with AC high voltage) was investigated in this paper. The effects of the plasma treatment time and the type of feeding gas, including air, oxygen, nitrogen and argon of the dye removal were determined. It is found that the voltage cycles of the gas-liquid gliding arc discharge are characterized by a moderate increase in the tension which is represented by a peak followed by an abrupt decrease and a current peak in the half period (10 ms); the concentration of AO7 solution decreases exponentially to reach 58.9, 77.4, 89.1, 95.1 and 99% in 25, 50, 75, 100 and 125 min, respectively, and the ln(Ct/C0) varies linearly with the treatment time t, indicating that decolorization reaction follow first pseudo-order kinetics with a constant rate of 0.03327 min(-1) when air was used as feeding gas; the decolorization rate during the plasma treatment is the greatest for oxygen as the feeding gas, in turn followed by air and argon, and was the least when using nitrogen. The variations of pH and conductivity and the formations of hydrogen peroxide and ozone are measured.

Destruction of PCDD/Fs by gliding arc discharges.

PCDD/Fs have been become a serious issue because of their toxicological effects and associated adverse health implications. In this study, the gliding arc plasma was tested for treatment of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) and polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), which was synthesized from pentachlorophenol in atmospheric condition at 350 degrees C with or without the catalysis of CuCl2. From the experiment, we found that the destruction efficiency of PCDD/F homologues after gliding was discharge ranged from 25% to 79%. This result demonstrates that gliding arc plasma is an effective technology to decompose PCDDs/Fs in flue gas. A plausible degradation mechanism for PCDD/Fs by gliding arc was discussed. Finally, a multistage reactor structure of gliding arc was proposed to upgrade removal efficiency for PCDD/Fs.

Upcycling Waste Lard Oil into Vertical Graphene Sheets by Inductively Coupled Plasma Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition.

Vertical graphene (VG) sheets were single-step synthesized via inductively coupled plasma (ICP)-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) using waste lard oil as a sustainable and economical carbon source. Interweaved few-layer VG sheets, H2, and other hydrocarbon gases were obtained after the decomposition of waste lard oil. The influence of parameters such as temperature, gas proportion, ICP power was investigated to tune the nanostructures of obtained VG, which indicated that a proper temperature and H2 concentration was indispensable for the synthesis of VG sheets. Rich defects of VG were formed with a high I D / I G ratio (1.29), consistent with the dense edges structure observed in electron microscopy. Additionally, the morphologies, crystalline degree, and wettability of nanostructure carbon induced by PECVD and ICP separately were comparatively analyzed. The present work demonstrated the potential of our PECVD recipe to synthesize VG from abundant natural waste oil, which paved the way to upgrade the low-value hydrocarbons into advanced carbon material.

Qualitation and Quantitation on Microplasma Jet for Bacteria Inactivation.

In this work, a self-made microplasma jet system was used to conduct the qualitation and quantitation of inactivation with Escherichia coli as the target bacteria. The logarithmic concentration and the size of antimicrobial rings served as the evaluation parameters, respectively. The effect of various parameters on inactivation effect was studied. The results showed that the majority of bacteria had been inactivated in 30 s. The inactivation effect enhanced and then weakened with the increase of air flow rate, and receded as the extension of treatment distance. The effect with different carrier gases showed as follows: oxygen > air > nitrogen > argon. Meanwhile, the effect of different components of microplasma was studied in the optimum conditions (The flow rate was 5 L/min; inactivation distance was 2 cm). The results showed that electrically neutral active species was the main factor of inactivation rather than heating effect, ultraviolet radiation and charged particles. Finally the experiments of thallus change proved that microplasma jet had etching effect on cell membrane. It also found that microplasma could degrade organic material like protein. Furthermore, the images of scanning electron microscope (SEM) revealed the change of cell morphology step by step in the whole process of inactivation.

Cu2O nanoparticles synthesis by microplasma.

A simple microplasma method was used to synthesize cuprous oxide (Cu2O) nanoparticles in NaCl-NaOH-NaNO3 electrolytic system. Microplasma was successfully used as the cathode and copper plate was used as the anode. The Cu2O products are characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The results show that the morphology of Cu2O nanocrystals obtained by this technology is mainly dependent on the electrolytic media, stirring, current density and reaction temperature. The uniform and monodisperse sphere Cu2O nanoparticles with the size about 400 ~ 600 nm can be easily obtained in H2O-ethylene glycol mix-solvent (volume ratio 1:1) and appropriate current density with stirring at room temperature. In addition, the possible mechanism has been reported in the article. And the average energy consumed in producing 1 g Cu2O nanoparticles is 180 kJ. For the flexibility and effectiveness of this microplasma technology, it will have broad application prospects in the realm of nanoscience, energy and environment.

Decomposition of ammonia and hydrogen sulfide in simulated sludge drying waste gas by a novel non-thermal plasma.

To efficiently clean NH3 and H2S contained in municipal sewage sludge drying waste gas, experiments were conducted with a novel gliding arc discharge plasma reactor. Important parameters including applied voltage and gas velocity which can strongly influence the removal efficiency, energy cost and by-products yields were investigated. Maximum removal efficiencies were all obtained at the applied voltage of 11 kV and gas velocity of 4.72 m s−1. When NH3 and H2S were treated together, the total energy cost decreased by 38%. NO and SO2 were observed as main decomposition by-products, and the presence of NH3 may inhibit the production of SO2 whose yield decreased from 223.8 to 27.8 mg m−3. Tests performed on lab scale reactor showed that gliding arc discharge is efficient in decreasing the NH3 and H2S concentrations, and experiments will also be conducted on a larger scale reactor in the future.

[Study on vitrification of simulated medical wastes by thermal plasma].

The simulated medical wastes with different feed compositions were vitrified in a thermal plasma reactor, the core of which was a DC double anode plasma torch. The purpose of this study was directed towards the mobility characteristics of heavy metals contained during the vitrification process, the leaching behavior of heavy metals in the vitrified slag and the effectiveness of vitrification were investigated. Results indicated that the morphology of vitrified slag was amorphous state which showed the mostly glassy slag of SiO2 and the microstructure of slag was very compact. This thermal plasma could be effectively utilized for encapsulation of heavy metal in wastes, as the vitrification ratio was between 68.5% - 89.4%. Toxicity characteristic leaching procedure results showed that the slag had an excellent resistance against leaching of heavy metal ions. Except that the leaching concentration of Cd was lower than the detecting limit, those of Ni, Cr, Zn, Cu and Pb were much lower than that specified in relevant national standards. These results indicate that, with the proper feed compositions, the thermal plasma disposition is an alternative technology with a highly efficiency to dispose medical wastes.

Adsorption of Pb(II), Cr(III), Cu(II), Cd(II) and Ni(II) onto a vanadium mine tailing from aqueous solution.

The adsorption of heavy metal cations Pb(II), Cr(III), Cu(II), Cd(II) and Ni(II) from aqueous solution by a mine tailing which mainly contains muscovite was investigated. The property of the mineral was investigated by using SEM, FT-IR, XRD and BET analysis. pH(pzc) was measured by an titration technique to give a value of 5.4+/-0.1. Kinetics experiments indicated that the processes can be simulated by pseudo-second-order model. Total adsorption amounts of the heavy metal increased, while the adsorption density decreased when the solid-to-liquid ratio (S/L) increased. Grain size did not affect the adsorption capacity significantly. The resulting isotherms can be described by Frendlich relationship. And the maximum adsorption capacity (molar basis) followed the order of Cr(III)>Pb(II)>Cu(II)>Ni(II)>Cd(II). Thermodynamic analysis showed that the adsorption processed were endothermic and may be chemical in nature with positive DeltaH(0). The positive DeltaS(0) suggested that dissociative processed were involved. Small positive DeltaG(0) suggested that the adsorption processes required a small amount of energy. Adsorption processes were slightly affected by electrolyte ion concentration but strongly dependent on pH value. The most possible mechanism of the adsorption processes involve the inner-sphere-complexions by the aluminol or silanol groups on the surface of the mineral.

A river water quality model integrated with a web-based geographic information system.

Scientists often use mathematical models to assess river water quality. However, the application of the models in environmental management and risk assessment is quite limited because of the difficulty of preparing input data and interpreting model output. This paper presents a study that links ArcIMS, a Web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) software to ROUT, a national and regional scale river model which evolved from the US Environmental Protection Agency's Water Use Improvement and Impairment Model, to create a WWW-GIS-based river simulation model called GIS-ROUT. GIS-ROUT is used to predict chemical concentrations in perennially flowing rivers throughout the continental United States that receive discharges from more than 10,000 publicly owned wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The WWTP chemical loadings are calculated from per capita per day disposal of product ingredients and the population served by each plant. Each WWTP, containing data on treatment type and influent and effluent flows, is spatially associated with a specific receiving river segment. Based on user defined treatment-type removal rates for a particular chemical, an effluent concentration for each WWTP is calculated and used as input to the river model. Over 360,000 km of rivers are modeled, incorporating dilution and first order loss of the chemical in each river segment. The integration of spatial data, GIS, the WWW, and modeling in GIS-ROUT makes it possible to organize and analyze data spatially, and view results on interactive maps as well as tables and distribution charts. The integration allows scientists and managers in different locations to coordinate and share their estimations for environmental exposure and risk assessments.