Plasma assisted dissociation of hydrogen sulfide

Abstract

Dissociation of hydrogen sulfide has been studied in four different discharges: AC corona, dielectric barrier, streamer, and contracted glow discharge. All experiments were done in a single geometry, close to a plug flow reactor, with the goal of fair comparison. The performance of corona discharge and DBD was studied in the initial gas temperature range of 300–1200 K. A specific energy requirement (SER) was calculated as function of energy input for each type of discharge and compared with earlier experimental results and modeling. The results showed that discharges with high E/n and low specific energy input (corona, DBD, and streamer) perform much worse than those with low E/n (contracted glow discharge) where specific energy input was high and gas temperature was elevated. The SER for non-thermal dissociation was 12–14 eV/molec. However, in the case of the contracted glow discharge, SER decreased to 2.4 eV/molec. This SER is close to the value predicted by thermodynamic equilibrium modeling. Further reduction of SER in a plug flow reactor does not seem possible.