Effective combination of non-thermal plasma and catalyst for removal of volatile organic compounds and NOx

Abstract

A plasma/catalyst hybrid reactor was designed to overcome the limits of plasma and catalyst technologies. A two-plasma/catalyst hybrid system was used to decompose VOCs (toluene) and NOx at temperature lower than 150 °C. The single-stage type (Plasma-driven catalyst process) is the system in which catalysts are installed in a non-thermal plasma reactor. And the two-stage type (Plasma-enhanced process) is the system in which a plasma and a catalyst reactor are connected in series. The catalysts prepared in this experiment were Pt/TiO₂ and Pt/Al₂O₃ of powder type and Pd/ZrO₂, Pt/ZrO₂ and Pt/Al₂O₃ which were catalysts of honeycomb type. When a plasma-driven catalyst reactor with Pt/Al₂O₃ decomposed only toluene, it removed just more 20% than the only plasma reactor but the selectivity of CO₂ was remarkably elevated as compared with only the plasma reactor. In case of decomposing VOCs (toluene) and NOx using plasma-enhanced catalyst reactor with Pt/ZrO₂ or Pt/Al₂O₃, the conversion of toluene to CO₂ was nearly 100% and about 80% of NOx was removed.