Investigation of the Physical Properties in Rotating Gliding Arc Discharge With Rapeseed Oil

With the benefits of the high chemical selectivity and low energy cost, atmospheric rotating gliding arc (RGA) plasma is considered as a promising method in various industrial applications. In this paper, rapeseed oil is first proposed as the raw material to produce high-valued chemical products by RGA plasma. The influences of operating conditions (applied voltage, oil flow rate, and gas flow rate) on RGA discharge with rapeseed oil are focused, in terms of the basic physical properties (V-I characteristics and discharge visualization) investigated using electrical diagnostics and high-speed photography. Blank experiments are conducted by supplying only pure N
₂
gas. The visual images presented complex arc dynamic behavior in N
₂
discharge, with the phenomenon of arc contact spot leap, spatial curl arc, and cracked. Intense purple light emission was observed by adding 3-mL/min oil droplets with four distinguished reaction stages. According to the electrical results, average current and power of arc increased with increasing applied voltage, while the average voltage indicated opposite variation tendency in different feedstocks. The augment of rapeseed oil flow rate decreased the average voltage and power, whereas raised the average current value in contrast.