A novel high-efficiency microwave plasma multi-ridges field compressed reactor

Abstract

Traditional tapered waveguide devices are limited by their power efficiency and produce unstable plasmas and small reaction zones. To overcome these drawbacks, a multi-ridge field compressed reactor operating at a frequency of 2.45 GHz is designed in this paper. The finite element method is applied to numerically compute its properties. A coupling model for the multiple physical fields is introduced to simulate the transient processes of a microwave argon plasma. Experiments with different flow rates and power settings are performed. This novel device can both sustain a long-length plasma and increase the power transfer efficiency from microwave to air and to the argon plasma, respectively, to 97.4% and 95.2%. Moreover, both devices are used to process the degradation of ethanol and benzene. The removal efficiencies are increased by 38.8% and 73.8% for ethanol and benzene, respectively, in the novel waveguide compared with the tapered waveguide.

Design and Study of a Large-Scale Microwave Plasma Torch with Four Ports

“…At a microwave power of 1.5 kW, the height of the plasma torch reached 210 mm, and the gas inflow rate ranged from 8.3 to 16.7 L/min [5]. Chen et al designed an MPT based on a multi-ridge field compressed reactor, which could sustain a long-length plasma, achieved a best transfer efficiency of 95.2%, and a working inflow rate ranging from 6 to 10 L/min [19]. Additionally, D'Isa et al studied an MPT with swirling gas flow, which achieved a gas inflow rate up to 30 L/min at a microwave power of 6 kW [20].…”