The use of pulsed-plasma technology for hazardous waste treatment

A new pulsed-plasma technology for hazardous waste treatment is presented. Tests were successfully carried out in a modular, transportable laboratory using reference materials and real industrial waste comprising mono- and dichlorobenzene (30-70%). Although the process was not optimized, it was found that complete destruction is achieved with an efficiency of 0.2-0.3 cc/kJ which is considerably higher (at least by 50%) than that obtained with other thermal methods.