Effect of Dielectric Barrier Discharges on the Elimination of Some Flue Gases

Abstract

The rapid development of the industry, rapid population growth, and the increase in the number of modern vehicles used lead to excessive energy consumption. For the purpose of meeting this consumption, the majority of energy is produced as a result of the burning of fossil fuels, especially in underdeveloped countries due to the fact that renewable energy sources have not reached the technological maturity yet. In addition, fossil fuels are still used in factories and homes for heating purposes. As a result of the combustion of these fossil fuels, large amounts of toxic gases are emitted into the atmosphere, and these gases have negative effects on the environment and indirectly on living beings. In this study, a new method was proposed to eliminate toxic components of flue gases. No chemical additives or catalysts were used in this study. In the proposed method, the chemical decomposition of SO2, CO, nitrogen oxide (NOX) gases was simultaneously achieved by applying voltages at various frequencies to a specially designed dielectric barrier discharges (DBD) reactor, and in a controlled manner, the conversion of these gases to other various chemical products was carried out. In this study, it was found that a significant part of the gases could be easily separated with the help of DBD plasma without the need for any catalyst or other systems. According to the results, it was observed that the effect of high-frequency plasma charge bombardment was highly effective in the simultaneous decomposition of toxic gas compounds.