Treating hazardous wastes with pulsed-plasma technology

A new, efficient, and environmentally friendly pulsed-plasma technology for hazardous waste treatment is presented. Tests were successfully carried ou t using modular, transportable laboratory equipment. Experiments were perfo rmed using perchloroethylene and trichloroethylene as reference materials a nd real industrial waste comprising mono- and dichlorobenzene (30-70%). Alt hough the process was not optimized, it was found that complete destruction of about 2 cc of waste per pulse could be achieved with an energy consumpt ion of 7-9 kJ/pulse, which is at least 50% less than the amount of energy r equired in other thermal methods. This work was performed within the framew ork of the 4th European Brite Euram R&D Program-"Prometheus."