Electron-impact ionization of air molecules and its application to the abatement of volatile organic compounds
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
- First Point Scientific, Inc., Agoura Hills, CA (United States)
In this paper the authors present data on the non-thermal plasma processing of two representative VOCs: carbon tetrachloride and methanol. The investigation used a compact electron beam reactor, and two types of discharge reactors: a pulsed corona and a dielectric-barrier discharge. To the knowledge of the authors, this is the first comparison of the energy efficiency of electron beam, pulsed corona and dielectric-barrier discharge processing of these VOCs under identical gas conditions. For most electrical discharge reactors the analysis suggests that the attainable electron mean energy is rather limited and cannot be significantly enhanced by changing the electrode configuration or voltage waveform. The experimental data confirms that there is no significant difference in the performance of the pulsed corona and dielectric-barrier discharge reactors. The authors observe that electron beam processing is remarkably more energy efficiency than electrical discharge processing in decomposing either of these VOC molecules. During electron beam processing, the specific energy consumption is consistent with the energy required for the ionization of the background air molecules. For carbon tetrachloride, the dominant decomposition pathway is dissociative electron attachment. For methanol, the dominant decomposition pathway is dissociative charge exchange.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States); National Science Foundation, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 201719
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JC-122546; CONF-9505325-1; ON: DE96005314; CNN: SBIR Contract III-9122767; TRN: AHC29606%%32
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: NATO advanced study institute on molecular physics and hypersonic flows, Maratea (Italy), 21 May - 3 Jun 1995; Other Information: PBD: 21 May 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
CARBON TETRACHLORIDE
DECOMPOSITION
METHANOL
POLLUTION CONTROL EQUIPMENT
ENERGY EFFICIENCY
AIR POLLUTION CONTROL
DATA
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
ELECTRON BEAMS
CHEMICAL REACTORS
INDUSTRIAL WASTES
ORGANIC SOLVENTS
ELECTRON GUNS