Carbon Tetrachloride Decomposition by Pulsed Spark Discharges in Oxidative and Nonoxidative Conditions

The estimation of pulsed-spark-discharge efficiency for destroying unwanted stable gaseous impurities is an object of the present study. A laboratory-scale reactor was developed to study the efficiency of pulsed spark discharges (PSDs) for
$\hbox{CCl}_{4}$
decomposition under oxidative and nonoxidative conditions at atmospheric pressure. In the discharge, chlorine gas was the main product produced from
$\hbox{CCl}_{4}$
in addition to minor amounts of additional products. These products were the following: 1)
$\hbox{C}_{2} \hbox{Cl}_{4}, \hbox{C}_{2}\hbox{Cl}_{6}$
, and solid deposits containing chlorine and carbon for the inlet
$\hbox{CCl}_{4} + \hbox{Ar}$
mixture and 2)
$\hbox{CO}_{2}$
with small amounts of
$\hbox{COCl}_{2}$
for
$ \hbox{CCl}_{4} + \hbox{O}_{2}$
mixture. For both diluting gases, it was possible to reach a high
$\hbox{CCl}_{4}$
conversion (98% for
$\hbox{CCl}_{4} + \hbox{O}_{2}$
and 93% for
$\hbox{CCl}_{4} + \hbox{Ar}$
).
$\hbox{CCl}_{4}$
was chosen as a model substance, because of its simple chemical composition and high stability of its structure. For this reason, the positive result of experiments with
$\hbox{CCl}_{4}$
gave evidence that using the PSD may be an effective way for the abatement of gaseous pollutant emission.