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The contribution of UV light from plasma and an external UV lamp to the decomposition of toluene in a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma/UV system, as well as in a plasma/photocatalysis system was investigated. It was found that UV light from the DBD reactor was very weak. Its contribution to the removal of toluene in the plasma/photocatalysis system could be ignored. Whereas, the introduction of external UV light to the plasma significantly improves the removal efficiency of toluene by 20%. The removal efficiency of toluene in the plasma/photocatalysis system increased about 22% and 16% when compared with a plasma only system and plasma driven photocatalyst system, respectively. The increased toluene removal efficiency was mostly attributed to the contribution of the synergy between plasma and UV light, but not to the synergy between plasma and photocatalysis. The synergetic effect between plasma and photocatalysis was not significant.

The main technical challenges for the treatment of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) with plasma-assisted catalysis in industrial applications are large volume plasma generation under atmospheric pressure, byproduct control, and aerosol collection. To solve these problems, a back corona discharge (BCD) configuration has been designed to evenly generate nonthermal plasma in a honeycomb catalyst. Voltage-current curves, discharge images, and emission spectra have been used to characterize the plasma. Grade particle collection results and flow field visualization in the discharge zones show not only that the particles can be collected efficiently, but also that the pressure drop of the catalyst layer is relatively low. A three-stage plasma-assisted catalysis system, comprising a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) stage, BCD stage, and catalyst stage, was built to evaluate toluene treatment performance by BCD. The ozone analysis results indicate that BCD enhances the ozone decomposition by collecting aerosols and protecting the Ag-Mn-O catalyst downstream from aerosol contamination. The GC and FTIR results show that BCD contributes to toluene removal, especially when the specific energy input is low, and the total removal efficiency reaches almost 100%. Furthermore, this removal results in the emission of fewer byproducts.