Improvement in discharge characteristics and energy yield of ozone generation via configuration optimization of a coaxial dielectric barrier discharge reactor

Abstract

Dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) has been widely employed in ozone generation. However, the technology still exhibits relatively low energy yield (EY) referring to its theoretical value. In this work, EY of ozone generation was improved by optimizing the mesh number, electrode length, and dielectric material in a coaxial DBD reactor with two wire mesh electrodes. Meanwhile, the discharge characteristics were investigated to elucidate the effect of reactor configuration on EY. Results showed that the discharge characteristics were improved by increasing the mesh number, electrode length, and relative permittivity. When the mesh number was increased from 40 to 100, an improvement of approximately 48% in EY was obtained. Additionally, higher EY values were obtained using corundum as the dielectric material relative to polytetrafluoroethylene and quartz. Ultimately, EY in the optimal DBD reactor could reach 326.77 g·(kW·h)−1. Compared with the reported DBD reactor, the coaxial DBD reactor with the mesh electrode and the dielectric material of corundum could effectively improve EY, which lays a foundation for the design of high-efficiency coaxial DBD reactor.