NOx treatment in diesel engine combustion exhaust gases by vacuum ultra-violet irradiation

For air pollution control to the global environment and the human health, an effective treatment process of NOx is required. In this work, a fundamental application of VUV irradiation to the NOx treatment process in diesel engine combustion exhaust gases was experimentally investigated. The experiment was conducted by using a constructed Xe discharge lamp as the VUV source within a photochemical reactor. The experimental results showed that the NO concentration was decreased with increasing the VUV radiated intensity of 172 nm in wavelength. In this photochemical process, a few HNO₃ produced as a by-product. This paper discusses some fundamental characteristics of the VUV radiation from the experimentally constructed Xe discharge lamp and the effective NOx decomposition for diesel engine combustion exhaust gases.