Regular Article

Treatment of industrial exhaust gases by a dielectric barrier discharge^*

¹ Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology, Felix-Hausdorff-Str. 2, 17489 Greifswald, Germany
² West Pomeranian University of Technology, al. Piastόw 17, 70-310 Szczecin, Poland
³ University of Tartu, Institute of Physics, Ravila 14c, 50411 Tartu, Estonia
⁴ VKG Oil AS, Järveküla tee 14, 30328 Kohtla-Järve, Estonia

^a e-mail: M_Schmidt@inp-greifswald.de

Received: 13 November 2015
Revised: 24 March 2016
Accepted: 25 March 2016
Published online: 8 August 2016

Abstract

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in industrial exhaust gases were treated by a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) operated with two different mobile power supplies. Together with the plasma source various gas diagnostics were used, namely fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, flame ionization detector (FID) and GC-MS. The analysis revealed that some exhaust gases consist of a rather complex mixture of hydrocarbons and inorganic compounds and also vary in pollutants concentration and flow rate. Thus, analysis of removal efficiencies and byproduct concentrations is more demanding than under laboratory conditions. This contribution presents the experimental apparatus used under the harsh conditions of industrial exhaust systems as well as the mobile power source used. Selected results obtained in a shale oil processing plant, a polymer concrete production facility and a yacht hull factory are discussed. In the case of total volatile organic compounds in oil processing units, up to 60% were removed at input energy of 21–37 J/L when the concentrations were below 500 mg/m³. In the yacht hull factory up to 74% of styrene and methanol were removed at specific input energies around 300 J/L. In the polymer concrete production site 195 ppm of styrene were decomposed with the consumption of 1.8 kJ/L. These results demonstrate the feasibility of plasma assisted methods for treatment of VOCs in the investigated production processes but additional analysis is needed to improve the energy efficiency.