(13b) Oxidation of Hydrocarbon Through Corona Discharge: Oxidation of Ethylene

Oxidation of hydrocarbon through Corona Discharge: Oxidation of
Ethylene

Yousef Alnazi, Peter Kreider, Alex
Yokochi, Goran Jovanovic

One of the major sources of air
pollution is the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from sources such
as the chemical industry and petroleum refineries. As a result, various methods
for VOC removal, such as liquid absorption, condensation, biodegradation, and
catalytic combustion have been studied.  Of these, catalytic combustion is particularly
useful, but not readily amenable to intermittent operation.

In this work, the possibility of
employing low voltage corona discharge for the complete destruction of VOCs by
converting them to carbon dioxide and water is explored. For the purpose a microchannel device was constructed equipped with a carbon
nanotube based emitter electrode, and its performance using ethylene gas and
atmospheric oxygen evaluated.  Our
results for product distribution as a function of power applied to the reactor will
be discussed, and the energetic efficiency of the process analyzed.