SO/sub 2/ and CO gas removal and discharge characteristics of a nonthermal plasma reactor in a crossed DC magnetic field

The discharge and SO/sub 2/ and CO gas removal characteristics of a wire-to-cylinder-type nonthermal plasma reactor in a crossed DC magnetic field have been investigated. The experiment emphasizes the application of a crossed magnetic field, which induces cyclotron and drift motions of electrons, making the residual time longer in the air-gap space. It also enhances the energy of electrons and their electrophysicochemical actions to remove pollutant gases effectively. It is found that the corona onset voltage and the breakdown voltage were decreased with increasing the crossed magnetic field. As a result, a higher ozone generation of 20%-30% can be obtained with DC corona discharges in the DC current-induced magnetic field. Also, a very high removal efficiency of almost 100% for the initially fed SO/sub 2/ gas of 120 ppm and CO gas of 1000 ppm was achieved at 900 G of the magnetic flux density.