Application of Corona Technology in the Reduction of Greenhouse Gases and other Gaseous Pollutants

Abstract

To protect the environment, it has been of interest to clean exhaust gases and to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. Non-thermal plasma can possibly be used to promote chemical reactions to reduce the emission of gaseous pollutants. One of the authors compared the efficiency of gas cleaning by electron beam irradiation, and by pulsed streamer corona discharge, using sulfur dioxide as an indicator and reported that the short-pulsed discharge could possibly be used for gas cleaning (Mizuno et al. 1984). To improve the energy transmission efficiency, square-wave voltages have been used recently instead of short-pulse voltages (Kamase et al., 1991). One of the authors also developed the ac energized ferroelectric pellet bed to promote chemical reactions (Mizuno et al. 1988). In this bed, many pulsed discharges take place around each contact point of the ferroelectric pellets, and the discharge energy can be controlled by changing the dielectric constant of the pellet. Catalyst can be used as the dielectric pellet, and catalytic reactions promoted by the plasma can possibly be made.