Preliminary study for plasma-catalytic decomposition of nitrogen oxide

Summary form only given. Accelerated global warming resulted in diverse regulations for possible removal of greenhouse gases. N
₂
O is one of global warming gases that is produced in the course of combustion process and incomplete reduction of NO
_x
. Removal of N
₂
O has been tried via catalytic reaction of N
₂
O decomposition
¹
. This study exploits possible way of plasma-catalytic removal of N
₂
O. MnO
₂
/Al
₂
O
₃
and Ru/Al
₂
O
₃
are considered as a catalyst for plasma-catalysis
²
. Thermal plasma and following catalyst bed has been applied. In this configuration, arc plasma itself destroys N
₂
O and also provides heat required for the catalytic reaction. In the experiment that adopted Ru/Al
₂
O
₃
as catalyst showed good removal efficiency. As byproducts, small amount of NO
₂
that can be removed by a scrubber is measured, but NO is not detected. From this work, the feasibility of the combination of plasma and catalyst is confirmed and further studies are needed to realize this hybrid system in an optimal way for real applications.