A study of NO removal by packed-beads discharge reactor

Recently, air pollution has become a serious problem; photochemical smog and acid rain are typical phenomena. NO/sub x/ is a serious air pollutant and a toxic gas. In spite of an attempt to reduce the amount of NO/sub x/ emitted, the density of NO/sub x/ in the atmosphere has remained on a stable level, or even become worse. Here, the authors propose a new reactor in which the gap area is filled as a single layer of glass plates and beads. They expect that surface and silent discharges are generated simultaneously in the same space. In this paper, the removal of NO/sub x/ from a dry NO/N/sub 2/ mixed gas by barrier discharge among glass beads in the reactor is experimentally investigated. The experiments are carried out for the frequency 50 Hz, with applied voltage from 0 to 20 kV/sub pp/ and a gas flow rate from 0.4 to 1.4 L/min. The results show that the NO and NO/sub x/ removal rates with glass beads are higher than those without glass beads at the same flow rate or residence time. Thus, the new reactor in which the gap area is filled with glass beads is more effective for NO/sub x/ removal.