Effect of Electrical Parameters on Energy Yield of Organic Pollutant Degradation in a Dielectric Barrier Discharge Reactor

A coaxial dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor is designed for degradation of aqueous organic pollutant by spraying solution into gaseous discharge plasma. With the intention of finding the most efficient way of energy injection, energy efficiency is studied under experimental conditions with various electrical parameters (applied voltage amplitude, frequency, pulsewidth, pulse shape, and total injection energy) using Rhodamine B as a model. The results show the highest energy performance is achieved at moderate voltage and low frequency with the energy yield G
₅₀
of 41.16 g/kW · h. It is found that at the same energy injection, pulses with a higher amplitude and a lower frequency perform better than those with lower voltage and higher frequency. Pulsewidth does not play an important role in energy efficiency in our DBD reactor. Voltage waveform with a fast falling edge is beneficial to energy efficiency performance.