Oxidation of propene from air by atmospheric plasma-catalytic hybrid system

Abstract

The pulsed dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) combined with the pal­ladium supported on alumina beads, was investigated for propene (C₃H₆) rem­oval from air. The effects of thermal-catalysis, plasma-catalysis (in-plasma cat­alysis and post-plasma catalysis), and plasma-alone on the propene removal were compared. Results are presented in the terms of C₃H₆ removal efficiency, energy consumption, and by-products production. Temperature dependence studies (20–250 °C) show that in all conditions of input plasma energy density explored (23–148 J L^-1), the plasma-catalysis systems exhibit better propene conversion efficiencies than the thermal catalysis at low temperature (60% at 20 °C). Plasma-alone treatment has a similar effectiveness compared to plasma-catalysis at room temperature, but it leads to the formation of high
by-products concentrations. It appears that in the plasma-catalyst system, C₃H₆ removal was the most efficient, whatever was the configuration used, and it was helpful to minimize by-products formation.