Decomposition of VOCs by a Novel Electrode System Integrating Ceramic Filter and Non Thermal Atmospheric Plasma

In the previous study, we developed a new efficient apparatus for gas treatment in which a ceramic filter and efficient non thermal plasma generation process called SPCP (surface corona discharge induced plasma chemical process) were integrated. In this study, the feasibility of the reactor to decompose various volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and the performance were evaluated. In the experiment, various kinds of straight-chain and cyclic saturated hydrocarbons with different carbon number were used as model VOCs. Effect of various experimental conditions such as initial concentration of VOCs and flow rate of carrier gas on the decomposition efficiency was also examined. Based on the experimental results, the influence of carbon numbers and structures of hydrocarbons on the reactor performance was examined. As the result, for all the hydrocarbons, the decomposition ratio was higher at the lower initial concentrations. It was also found that larger carbon number of hydrocarbons showed higher decomposition ratio in both cases of the straight chain and cyclic structures. Furthermore, it was understood that cyclic saturated hydrocarbons were easier to be decomposed than straight-chain hydrocarbons.