Investigation of electrical parameters and chemical activity of high-power short pulsed corona discharge

Electrical characteristics and chemical activity of a 50 MW, 100 kV, 22 ns pulsed corona discharge, driven by an inductive power supply, have been studied. The experiments were conducted in air at atmospheric pressure in wire-to-plane electrode geometry, and in the range of pressure up to 2.5 bar, in a coaxial arrangement. Current and voltage waveforms and volt-ampere characteristics have been obtained. It was found that the steepness of volt-ampere characteristics of the discharge decreases at higher air pressure. The abatement of SO/sub 2/ has been studied in a simulated gas flow in a coaxial reactor at atmospheric pressure. IR spectrometry was used for gas diagnostics. It was found the removal efficiency decreased at lower pollutant concentration and higher frequency while the pulse energy was kept invariant.