Generation of Streamer Discharge Plasma in Water by All Solid-State Pulsed Power

Abstract

Pulsed power has been used to produce non-thermal plasmas in gases that generate a high electric field at the tip of streamer discharges, where high energy electrons, free radicals, and ozone are produced. Recently, all solid-state pulsed power generators, which are operated with high repetition rate, long lifetime and high reliability, have been developed for industrial applications, such as high repetition rate pulsed gas lasers, high energy density plasma (EUV sources) and water discharges. We have studied and developed repetitive all solid-state pulsed power system for discharge in water. The developed system consists of a photo-voltaic generator, a Pb battery, an inverter, a controller, a command charger, a high-speed thyristor, a magnetic pulse compression circuit and a pulse transformer, and has mobility. This system can generate an output peak voltage of over 100 kV with voltage rise time of 200 ns. In this work, large volume streamer like discharges in water were produced by the developed system and this discharge plasma used to treat algae (Microcystis) with point-to-plane simple electrodes.