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Plasma remediation of gas streams contaminated by trichloroethylene

Journal Article · · Bulletin of the American Physical Society
OSTI ID:127963
;  [1];  [2]
  1. Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL (United States)
  2. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)

There is increasing interest in using plasmas to cleanse gas streams of toxic gases and for toxic waste remediation. Silent discharges (or dielectric barrier discharges) are attractive in this regard because they operate stably at high power deposition and atmospheric pressure. The authors have experimentally and computationally investigated the removal of trichloroethylene (C{sub 2}HCl{sub 3}) or TCE from Ar/O{sub 2}/H{sub 2}O gas streams using a silent discharge. Experimental results will be discussed where TCE is removed from the gas stream (1000 ppm reduced to < 1 ppm) with moderate energy deposition (10s mJ-cm{sup {minus}3}). The desired reaction products are CO{sub 2} and UC1. The plasma removal of TCE, however, directly produces undesirable products such as CHOCl and COCl{sub 2} (phosgene). These products can also be oxidized and removed from the gas stream by further increasing power deposition beyond that required for removal of TCE. Reaction mechanisms will be discussed with results from a plasma chemistry computer model.

OSTI ID:
127963
Report Number(s):
CONF-920376--
Journal Information:
Bulletin of the American Physical Society, Journal Name: Bulletin of the American Physical Society Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 37; ISSN 0003-0503; ISSN BAPSA6
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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