Effect of the factors on the mixture of toluene and chlorobenzene degradation by non-thermal plasma

Abstract

Toluene (TOL) and chlorobenzene (CB), as typical representatives of VOCs and CVOCs, respectively, widely exist in various industries. The synergistic degradation experiment of TOL and CB was carried out in NTP reactor, and compared with the treatment of TOL or CB. Meanwhile, the effects of the mixture concentration ratio, gas velocity and the catalyst (0.4 Ru-1.0 Ce /TiO2/cordierite) on the degradation of TOL and CB were also investigated. The experimental results suggested that the 45.6% of degradation efficiency and 14.4% of CO2 selectivity of TOL was higher than that of 39.6% and 11.5% of CB at 14 kV. Compared with the NTP alone, the degradation efficiency of TOL was increased by 20.8% in the mixture systems, while CB was inhibited and decreased by 21.3%. The kinetic analysis also proved this phenomenon. The concentration ratio of TOL and CB had little effect on the degradation efficiency and CO2 selectivity. Higher gas velocity reduced the degradation efficiency and CO2 selectivity of the mixture. Meanwhile, the degradation efficiency and CO2 selectivity were greatly improved through the catalyst. Furthermore, the ozone concentration near 0 mg m−3 at 22 kV, and the results of ozone demonstrated that the formation and degradation of ozone were not only related to the temperature of the reaction system, but also related to the type, concentration and gas velocity of pollutants. Finally, the possible degradation pathways of two aromatic VOCs in the process of plasma degradation were proposed and discussed.