Modelling of NO and HC removal by non-thermal plasmas

Public concern about the environmental situation creates strong restriction s on the purity of exhaust gases in various polluting industrial enterprise s. A promising method of gas cleaning is the use of pulsed corona discharge s. In these devices, short pulses at high frequency allow one to increase t he energy input and radical production for subsequent transformation of tox ic pollutants (NOx, SO2, CxHy, etc). For a better understanding and optimization of the possible applications of this technique it is necessary to develop models for the underlying physic al and chemical processes which are responsible for the removal of pollutan ts. In this work, we have theoretically investigated the removal of NO and the effect of ethane and propene on NO removal by non-thermal plasma discharges at low temperature (373 K) and at atmospheric pressure. The model takes into account the production of radicals after every dischar ge and the subsequent removal of NO and HC by radicals. Reaction flow analy sis reveals the characteristic differences of NO reactions in the presence of unburned alkanes and alkenes. The results of our numerical simulations s how good agreement with experimental data published in the literature.