Improvement of deoxidization efficiency of nitric monoxide by shortening pulse width of semiconductor opening switch pulse power generator

Abstract

The deoxidization efficiency of nitric monoxide (NO) was improved by shortening the pulse width of the voltage applied to a corona reactor. The deoxidization efficiency of NO was evaluated as the NO removal efficiency in nitrogen (N2) gas containing 200 ppm NO. The corona reactor had a coaxial geometry and consisted of center high-voltage wire and outer grounded cylinder electrodes. A nanosecond high-voltage pulse was generated using an inductive energy storage pulse power circuit with a semiconductor opening switch and was applied to the center wire electrode in the corona reactor. Fast recovery diodes were utilized as a semiconductor opening switch. The pulse width of the applied voltage was reduced from 21 to 14 ns with the arrester connected in parallel to the reactor. The energy efficiency for NO removal was improved from 8.2 to 35.7 g kW−1 h−1 with the arrester connected. The pulse width was also reduced to 8 ns by optimizing the circuit parameters. It was confirmed from observation with an intensified charge-coupled device (ICCD) camera that the streamer corona discharge transited to a glowlike discharge after the streamer propagated from the center wire electrode to the outer cylinder electrode. The duration of the glowlike phase was reduced with the arrester connected. The energy consumed in the glowlike phase was also reduced from 15.7 to 4.6 mJ with the arrester connected.