From chemical kinetics to streamer corona reactor and voltage pulse generator

This paper discusses the global chemical kinetics of corona plasma-induced chemical reactions for pollution control. If there are no significant radic al termination reactions, the pollution removal linearly depends on the cor ona energy density and/ or the energy yield is a constant. If linear radica l termination reactions play a dominant role, the removal rate shows experi mental functions in terms of the corona energy density If the radical conce ntration is significantly affected by nonlinear termination reactions, the removal rate depends on the square root of the corona energy density. These characteristics are also discussed with examples of VOCs and NOx removal a nd multiple processing. Moreover, this paper also discusses how to match a corona plasma reactor with a voltage pulse generator in order to increase t he total energy efficiency. For a given corona reactor, a minimum peak volt age is found for matching a voltage pulse generator. Optimized relationship between the voltage rise rime, the output impedance of a voltage pulse gen erator, and the stray capacitance of a corona reactor is presented. As an e xample, the paper discusses a 5.0-kW hybrid corona nonthermal plasma system for NOx removal from exhaust gases.