Decoloration of Azo Dye Sunset Yellow by a Coaxial Insulated-Rod-to-Cylinder Underwater Streamer Discharge System

A coaxial insulated-rod-to-cylinder underwater streamer discharge system capable of injecting plasma into a large volume of water was developed and employed to decolorize azo dye sunset yellow. The rod type anode was covered by an insulator tube with a wall thickness of 0.4 mm. A series of slits with a width of 20 μm to 80 μm and a length of about 4 mm were cut onto the wall of the insulator tube. Depending on the solution conductivity, a cylindrical discharge region with a length of 60 mm and a wall thickness of 5 mm to 11 mm forms in the reactor. The influence of the solution conductivity, pH and pulse frequency on the decoloration of sunset yellow was investigated. The results show that the solution conductivity has little effect, while the solution pH and the pulse frequency have significant influence on the decoloration rate of sunset yellow. The decoloration rate of sunset yellow is increased with the increase in pulse frequency. A lower pH in solution promotes the decoloration of sunset yellow while a higher pH inhibits it.     

Nitrogen Fixation into HNO3 and HNO2 by Pulsed High Voltage Discharge

Plasma processing induced by discharge offers a unique way to activate nitrogen molecules. Direct nitrogen fixation into water can be realized through this approach. In this study, air or pure nitrogen gas was used as the major nitrogen source bubbled into the discharge reactor. When a discharge occurred, nitrogen was dissociated to active species to take part in the aqueous chemical process. HNO3 and HNO2 were produced. The nitrogen fixation process was influenced distinctly by the presence of hydroxyl radicals. During a discharge of 21 min, HNO3 was the main product and occupied 95% of the total nitrogen content in water. Its concentration was 1.36 × 10^-3 mol/L^-1 with bubbling air and was 1.53 × 10^-3 mol L^-1 with bubbling nitrogen, while the yield was 2.32 × 10^-3 mol J^-1S^-1 and 2.06 × 10^-8 mol J^-1S^-1, respectively.     

Electrical Characteristics of Pulsed Corona Discharge Plasmas in Chitosan Solution

Pulsed discharge plasma has exhibited active potential to prepare low molecular weight chitosan. In the present study, the viscosity of ehitosan solution was decreased noticeably after treated with pulsed corona discharge plasma. An experimental investigation on electrical characteristics of pulsed corona discharge plasma in chitosan solution was conducted with a view toward getting insight into discharge process. Factors affecting I-V curve, single pulse injec- tion energy and pulse width were studied. Experimental results showed positive effect of pulsed peak voltage on discharge plasma in chitosan solution. Pulse-forming capacitor greatly influenced the discharge form, and 4 nF was observed as a suitable value for efficiently generating stable discharge plasmas. As the electrode distance was larger than 10 ram, it had slight impact on dis- charge plasma due to the excellent conductive-property of chitosan solution. The injection energy significantly increased with air flow rate, while the pulse width hardly changed as the air flow rate increased from 0.5 m^3/h to 1.0 m^3/h. This study is expected to provide reference for promoting the application of pulsed corona discharge plasma to ehitosan solution treatment.     

Near Term Applications of Plasma Science and Fusion Research: National Laboratory Perspectives

This paper describes some of the near-term practical applications of plasma science from the perspective of National Laboratories involved with fusion research for many years. The first half of the paper presents suggestions for maintaining a healthy national program in this area. The second part of the paper gives specific examples of near-term plasma applications research at our laboratories.     

Removal of NO and SO2 in Corona Discharge Plasma Reactor with Water Film

In this paper, a novel type of a corona discharge plasma reactor was designed, which consists of needle-plate-combined electrodes, in which a series of needle electrodes are placed in a glass container filled with flue gas, and a plate electrode is immersed in the water. Based on this model, the removal of NO and SO2 was tested experimentally. In addition, the effect of streamer polarity on the reduction of SO2 and NO was investigated in detail. The experimental results show that the corona wind formed between the high-voltage needle electrode and the water by corona discharge enhances the cleaning efficiency of the flue gas because of the presence of water, and the cleaning efficiency will increase with the increase of applied dc voltage within a definite range. The removal efficiency of SO2 up to 98%, and about 85% of NO~ removal under suitable conditions is obtained in our experiments.     

Esterification by the Plasma Acidic Water:Novel Application of Plasma Acid

This work explores the possibility of plasma acid as acid catalyst in organic reactions. Plasma acidic water was prepared by dielectric barrier discharge and used to catalyze esterification of n-heptanioc acid with ethanol. It is found that the plasma acidic water has a stable and better performance than sulfuric acid, meaning that it is an excellent acid catalyst. The plasma acidic water would be a promising alternative for classic mineral acid as a more environment friendly acid.     

Atmospheric-pressure dielectric barrier discharge generation by a full-bridge flying capacitor multilevel inverter

A new configuration of a resonant full-bridge flying capacitor multicell inverter has been designed and constructed with the aim of achieving an extended output voltage frequency range with low harmonic distortion and reduced semiconductor commutation losses. This configuration was tested as a power supply for two different coaxial dielectric barrier discharge reactors, one of them employed for electric characterization and the other one for inorganic compound elimination in an aqueous solution. Two different gas mixtures, 90% Ar–10% O_2 and80% Ar–20% O_2, were individually supplied during the experiments; the results showed a highefficiency removal of meta-cresol(m-cresol) to the order of 98%, which was obtained by adding more oxygen to the plasma gas mixture.     

Plasmas: Diversity, Pervasiveness and Potential

When considered inclusively, plasma science and technology encompass immense diversity, pervasiveness and potential: diversity through numerous topical areas (see list of nearly 200 in Table II); pervasiveness with examples covering the full range of energy, time and spatial scale; and potential through innumerable current and future applications.     

Scaling Factor of the Operating Parameters of Z-pinch Liners

Imploding plasma liners in the Z-pinch scheme have been demonstrated to be capable of producing high power radiation in the soft X-ray waveband owing to the conversion of the kinetic energy of imploding liner into thermal energy which in turn is converted into X-ray energy. To obtain largest X-ray power for a certain pulsed-power driving- source, the liner should gain a kinetic energy as great as possible, which imposes an optimal scaling upon the operating parameters of liner in terms of getting largest kinetic energy. This work exposes, by means of numerical calculations based on zero-dimensional quasi-plasma-shell model, the large variation of the scaling factor, which connects the parameters of the initial liner and the driving current, with different driving current waveforms. Also solved in the work is the optimal scaling factor in the sense of producing maximum kinetic energy. Calculations show that maximum kinetic energy is obtained at the current maximum or a little time later. These results ar     

Removal of Nitrogen Oxides in Diesel Engine Exhaust by Plasma Assisted Molecular Sieves

This paper reports the studies conducted on removal of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) from diesel engine exhaust using electrical discharge plasma combined with adsorbing materials such as molecular sieves. This study is being reported for the first time. The exhaust is taken from a diesel engine of 6 kW under no load conditions. The characteristic behavior of a pulse energized dielectric barrier discharge reactor in the diesel exhaust treatment is reported. The NOx removal was not significant (36%) when the reactor without any packing was used. However, when the reactor was packed with molecular sieves (MS -3A, -4A & -13X), the NOx removal efficiency was increased to 78% particularly at a temperature of 200℃ . The studies were conducted at different temperatures and the results were discussed.