Experimental Study of Dye Wastewater Treatment by Wire-plate Reactor with Pulsed Discharge

The effectiveness of applying a pulsed discharge to the destruction of dye in water was investigated. For improving decoloration efficiency of Rhodamine B in aqueous solution by hybrid gas-liquid pulsed discharge, a wire-plate pulsed discharge reactor that utilizes high voltage wire electrodes submerged in the aqueous phase coupled with plate ground electrode suspended in the gas phase above the water surface was established. In the experimental research, the influences of pulsed voltage, pulsed frequency, wire-to-plate spacing, wire-to-wire spacing and rate of bubbling of the reactor on decoloration efficiency of Rhodamine B have been studied. Test results indicate that the decoloration efficiency of Rhodamine B is 99.43% and the TOC of the solution decreases to 26.9 mg/L from 70 mg/L under the optimal condition that pulsed voltage is 35 kV, pulsed frequency is 60 Hz, wire-to-plate spacing is 8 cm, wire-to-wire spacing is 5 mm, rate of bubbling is 15 L/h and treatment time is 50 min. Results also show that the pulsed discharge plasma treatment is efficient for aqueous solution decoloration of textile dye.