A GLIDING DISCHARGE APPLIED TO H2S DESTRUCTION

The destruction of foul smelling gases is an important subject involvi ng a number of industrial applications. Increased interest is being de voted to technologies based on the properties of cold plasmas, which a re the subject of a large body of research. Among all possible techniq ues, the sliding discharge is one of the simplest to utilize. We prese nt a study of the destruction of H2S diluted in air by this type of di scharge. We first describe the electric power supply, its characterist ics and the design of the reactor. The properties of the discharge and its changes are then described using measurements of voltage, current , and different characteristic parameters: temperatures, velocities, a nd length of the discharge. After describing the instrumentation used for chemical diagnoses, the main experimental results are presented. T hey show the changes in the conversion rate as a function of the flow rate of the gas to treat and the dimensions of the reaction chamber, e nabling a model of discharge changes to be defined. The model defines a zone of transformation corresponding to a volume swept by the plasma . It was thus possible to determine how destruction efficiency is affe cted by construction parameters, reactor dimensions, voltage, and flow rates. The energy cost per molecule destroyed is relatively high beca use the pollutant is diluted. With several improvements, the possibili ty of processing high flow rates with a simplified implementation coul d enable immediate industrial application to be envisaged. (C) 1998 Am erican Institute of Physics.