Hidetoshi Sekiguchi, Takashi Nagamatsu and Phairat Usubharatana*

Department of Chemical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology 2-12-1 O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, JAPAN
hsekiguc@chemeng.titech.ac.jp

* Department of Chemical Engineering, Thammasat University Rangsit Campus, Khlong-Luang, Pathum-Thani 12121, THAILAND

Control and Destruction of toxic air pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOC's) must be established immediately because of the global environmental problem. The conventional methods for controlling VOC's are catalytic oxidation, activated carbon adsorption, and thermal incineration. These technologies, however, associated problems such as costs and energy requirements. Thus the developments of new and effective technologies to control VOC's have been desired. Recently non-thermal plasma generated by electrical discharge has offered an innovative approach to the problems of VOC's. Nonthermal plasma is highly effective in promoting oxidation, enhancing molecular dissociation, and producing free radicals that cause the enhancement of chemical reactions. Many types of non-thermal plasma process have been developed already. The objective of this study was to apply the non-thermal plasma to the destruction of VOC's. The non-thermal plasma was generated by dielectric barrier discharge. Two types of the reactors were used in the experiment. Methanol was selected as a representative of VOC's. Some of the experimental results were indicated in Fig.1. The decomposition rate was affected by discharge power. Catalytic particles were put on the electrode to enhance the decomposition efficiency. This was an attempt for catalysis-assisted plasma reactions. The catalyst of Pt-on-Al2O3 gave the promotion of the decomposition rate as shown in Fig.1. This study suggested the plasma reactor used here was one of the promising methods to control VOC's.