Average 120-kW MPC modulator for plasma de-NO/sub x//de-SO/sub x/ system

The pulsed corona discharge process shows the encouraging results for the removal of NO/sub x/ and SO/sub x/ gases based on small-scale experiments. The lifetime and the reliability of the system are major difficulties to realize this newly developed technology because the downtime for maintenance affects the plant availability. The combination of a high power solid-state switch with a magnetic pulse compressor (MPC) is a suitable scheme to meet these requirements. An average 120-kW MPC modulator has been constructed and tested with a plasma reactor for an industrial incinerator plant. The plasma reactor has wire-plate electrodes and can treat the gas of 50000 Nm/sup 3//Hr. This modulator can generate 150 kV pulses with 500 nsec (FWHM) pulse width, and 300 Hz repetition rate. This paper presents design details and the operational characteristics of the MPC modulator.