Influences of H2 and O2 and in situ Ca(OH)2 absorption on nonthermal plasma decomposition of trichloroethylene in N2

Abstract

Abstract The decomposition of trichloroethylene (TCE) with a wire-in-tube pulsed corona reactor was experimentally investigated. It was found that the decomposition of TCE was higher in N 2 gas, compared to the decomposition in the gas stream containing H 2 or O 2 gas. The main gaseous products were HCl and Cl 2 for TCE decomposition in N 2 gas. With the existence of 2% H 2 in gas stream, the yield of HCl was three times higher than that in N 2 gas. When O 2 gas was added into N 2 gas stream, the main decomposition products were COCl 2 , CO 2 and DCAC. In order to prevent the production of unwanted byproducts from TCE decomposition, a combination of plasma decomposition and in situ absorption was proposed by coating a layer of Ca(OH) 2 on the surface of the grounding electrode. It was demonstrated that the Ca(OH) 2 sorbent in the plasma reactor played an effective role as a scavenger participating in the TCE decomposition by in situ capturing of the unwanted products like HCl, therefore resulting in the increase of TCE decomposition.