From chemical kinetics to streamer corona reactor and voltage pulse generator

This paper discusses the global chemical kinetics of corona plasma-induced chemical reactions for pollution control. If there are no significant radical termination reactions, the pollution remoûal linearly depends on the corona energy density and/ or the energy yield is a constant. If linear radical termination reactions play a dominant role, the remoûal rate shows experimental functions in terms of the corona energy density. If the radical concentration is significantly affected by nonlinear termination reactions, the remoûal rate depends on the square root of the corona energy density. These characteristics are also discussed with examples of VOCs and NOx remoûal and multiple processing. Moreoûer, this paper also discusses how to match a corona plasma reactor with a ûoltage pulse generator in order to increase the total energy efficiency. For a giûen corona reactor, a minimum peak ûoltage is found for matching a ûoltage pulse generator. Optimized relationship between the ûoltage rise time, the output impedance of a ûoltage pulse generator, and the stray capacitance of a corona reactor is presented. As an example, the paper discusses a 5.0-kW hybrid corona nonthermal plasma system for NOx remoûal from exhaust gases.