Combining catalysis with non-thermal plasma for volatile organic compounds abatement

Summary form only given. Non-thermal plasma is a promising technology for volatile organic compounds abatement characterized by high energy efficiencies, high degradation rate and without secondary pollution. Previous study has shown that applying catalysts in the discharging area can improve the exhaust degradation rate and the reaction energy efficiency. In this experiment, we demonstrate the degradation of xylene by dielectric barrier discharge in a tubular quartz reactor with repetitive high voltage all-solid-state Marx generator. The xylene was mixed with air to simulate the exhaust of lacquer industry. The concentrations of xylene and carbon dioxide before and after reaction were measured and recorded by gas chromatograph. The catalysts we adopted, which were argentum and manganese, were placed at the plasma discharging area. We investigated the efficacy of the catalysts by comparing the degradation rate of xylene in two conditions: with catalysts in reactor and without catalysts in reactor. The influence of power frequency, xylene initial concentration and gas flow velocity were also investigated.