Project title
Plasma-catalytic system for the total oxidation
of volatile organic compounds
Abstract
The proposed project is aimed at studying
plasma-catalytic systems for the total oxidation of organic pollutants in air. Non-thermal
plasmas generated in atmospheric pressure electrical discharges will be used in
combination with various catalysts. Understanding the interaction between
non-thermal plasma and catalysts in the direction of obtaining a synergetic
effect is the main purpose of the project. Assessment of the efficiency of the
investigated method, as well as of the possibilities for up-scaling is the
second aspect of the proposed project.
Pulsed corona discharges, dielectric barrier
discharges and dielectric packed-bed discharges will be considered for the
oxidation of volatile organic compounds (voc) in air. The advantage of
non-thermal plasmas is the ability to generate high energy electrons that
excite, dissociate and ionise the gas molecules, producing chemically active
species, which in turn can react with the organic pollutants and decompose
them. Meanwhile, the gas remains close to room temperature, therefore a highly
reactive environment is created without spending energy for heating the entire
gas stream, as in thermal processes.
Rather low selectivity towards total oxidation
represents the major drawback of plasma treatment of polluted air, which
prevented the broad application of this technology. The addition of appropriate
catalysts is expected to enhance the voc conversion and especially the
selectivity of the oxidation process, due to reactions on the catalyst surface
with active species formed in the plasma. It is hoped that by combining
non-equilibrium plasma and heterogeneous catalysis, the high efficiency of
non-thermal activation and the high selectivity of the appropriate catalysts
will result in a synergetic effect. In this way a plasma catalytic system could
be developed, having the ability to selectively promote the desired chemical
reactions and implicitly reducing the energy consumption for the air cleaning
process.
Research team
|
Project
director |
Dr.
Monica Magureanu (NILPRP) |
|
Senior
researchers |
Dr.
Nicolae Bogdan Mandache (NILPRP) Prof.
Vasile Parvulescu ( |
|
Young
researchers |
Bogdan
Cojocaru (PhD student, Stefan
Neatu (PhD student, Daniela
Piroi (student, NILPRP) |
Young researchers’ tasks:
The research team includes two PhD
students who graduated the Faculty of Chemistry of the
A student of the Faculty of Physics, Daniela Piroi, is included in the project research team as well. She worked for her diploma thesis (“The study of a dielectric barrier discharge for the oxidation of chlorinated organic compounds”) in the research team which proposed the present project and graduated in July 2007. Subsequently, she continued her formation as researcher in the same group. She followed the Master degree courses and graduated in 2009 with the thesis entitled: “The decomposition of air and water organic pollutants using a dielectric barrier discharge”. Presently she is a PhD student and the tentative title of her PhD thesis is: “The study of non-equilibrium plasmas combined with heterogeneous catalysis for the decomposition of organic pollutants in air and water”. Her tasks in the project consist especially in electrical discharge characterization, experiments for VOC oxidation in the plasma, and in plasma-catalytic systems, as well as electrical discharges in water for the decomposition of organic pollutants.
Objectives and activities
The project proposes a systematic
study of the oxidation of volatile organic compounds in plasmo-catalytic
systems, focused on the interaction between non-thermal plasma and
heterogeneous catalysis with the aim of obtaining a synergetic effect. Due to
the research objectives planned, it is expected that the project will
contribute to finding answers to the questions that are still open in this
research field.
In order to achieve the final
objective, the project will be focused on the following specific scientific
tasks:
•
to study the physical and chemical processes involved in the oxidation
of chlorinated organic compounds in non-thermal plasmas in the absence of
catalysts and in the plasma-catalytic systems
•
to determine in both the above-mentioned situations the reaction
mechanisms responsible for pollutants decomposition.
•
on the basis of the experimental investigations carried out, to optimise
the discharge conditions and the catalysts preparation procedures, in order to
obtain a synergetic effect between the plasma and the catalysts
• to
evaluate the efficiency of the investigated method of pollution abatement, and
to assess the possibility of up-scaling.
Results
Articles
published in international ISI journals:
Contributions
at international conferences:
Contracting:
-
Contract
-
Anexa A –
Procedura de contractare şi decontare a lucrărilor
-
Anexa I – Deviz cadru antecalcul
-
Anexa IIa – Plan de realizare a proiectului
-
Anexa IIb – Criterii minime de performanţă
aşteptate
-
Anexa III – Esalonarea platilor
Phase I :
-
Proces verbal
de avizare interna a rezultatelor
-
Cerere modificare deviz cadru
-
Raport anual de activitate - 2007
Phase II:
-
Proces
verbal de avizare interna a rezultatelor
-
Cerere modificare deviz
cadru
-
Raport anual de activitate -
2008
Phase III:
-
Proces verbal de avizare interna a rezultatelor
-
Cerere modificare deviz cadru
-
Raport anual de activitate – 2009