Decomposition of benzene as a surrogate tar in a gliding Arc plasma

Abstract

The pyrolysis and gasification technology uses diverse waste resources, including biomass, urban solid waste, and sewage sludge, to produce synthetic gases for industrial use. The tar in the thermal decomposition gas from the pyrolysis and/or gasification process, however, damages synthetic gas facilities and causes operation trouble. In this study, a gliding‐arc plasma reformer for tar decomposition was developed to address the aforementioned problem. In addition, experiments were performed on the variables that affect the tar removal efficiency, and the optimal operation condition was presented. The experimental variables included the steam flow rate, input benzene concentration, total gas feed rate, specific energy input (SEI), gas nozzle diameter, electrode length, electrode gap, and electrode shape. With the increase in the total gas feed rate, the benzene decomposition efficiency slightly decreased, and with the increase in the SEI, the energy efficiency increased. In the stable plasma discharge condition, a smaller nozzle diameter, a longer electrode gap, and a longer electrode length led to better decomposition and energy efficiencies. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 32: 837–845, 2013

Destruction of Toluene, Naphthalene and Phenanthrene as Model Tar Compounds in a Modified Rotating Gliding Arc Discharge Reactor

“…(1) Figure 5 indicates that as the moisture concentration increases, the destruction efficiency of toluene, naphthalene, and phenanthrene increases first to a maximum at a moisture concentration of 8% or 12% and then starts decreasing. Previous studies by Zhu et al [36] and Chun et al [39] showed a similar phenomenon for the decomposition of tar surrogate using gliding arc. The proper amount Figure 5 indicates that as the moisture concentration increases, the destruction efficiency of toluene, naphthalene, and phenanthrene increases first to a maximum at a moisture concentration of 8% or 12% and then starts decreasing.…”

“…The proper amount Figure 5 indicates that as the moisture concentration increases, the destruction efficiency of toluene, naphthalene, and phenanthrene increases first to a maximum at a moisture concentration of 8% or 12% and then starts decreasing. Previous studies by Zhu et al [36] and Chun et al [39] showed a similar phenomenon for the decomposition of tar surrogate using gliding arc. The proper amount of moisture facilitates the reaction because of the generation of OH radicals [40], while too much water has an adverse effect on tar destruction due to its electronegative characteristics, which limits electron density and quenches reactive species [30].…”

Tar Removal by Nanosecond Pulsed Dielectric Barrier Discharge

“…Number of gaseous components entering a reactor-similar to a real biomass producer gas, which was considered only in [9,21]; 2. Number of tar components-in this work 3 tar representatives were used together while in most cases only 1 or 2 are used [11,15,16,[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]. Excluding a few works performed on real biomass producer gas [9,14,21] only Kong et al [17], Eliott et al [10], Jamroz et al [12] and Yu et al [35] used at least 3 tar components, but in nitrogen, argon and oxygen as a plasmaforming gas; 3.…”

Development of a gliding arc plasma reactor for CO2destruction

“…A gas injection nozzle (inner diameter, 1.6 mm) was fixed onto the supporter at the top centre of the electrode. [15] An orifice baffle was installed at 20 mm from the bottom of the electrode preventing the plasma discharge interference. The orifice baffles were used for three different shapes which were named Type 1, Type 2, and Type 3 in Figure 2.…”