CONFERENCE SUPPORT FOR THE 4TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON NON THERMAL PLASMA (May 10-14, 2004)

第四届非热等离子体污染控制和可持续能源发展国际研讨会将于2004年5月10日至14日在美国佛罗里达州巴拿马城海滩举行。致力于推进环境保护领域的非热等离子体工艺，包括应用于空气和水处理以及可持续能源处理。本次会议旨在汇集来自世界各地的专家，介绍该领域的最新进展，并讨论这些技术未来发展和研究的前景。因此，本次会议的目标是：1)聚集致力于非热等离子体环境应用的关键研究小组，包括空气和水处理以及可持续能源处理；2)提供一个刺激的环境，促进科学交流和讨论与该技术领域发展有关的最重要的当前问题；3)就未来的工作和发展方向进行广泛的讨论。该奖项通过旅费和出版费用为本次会议提供补充资金。本次会议可产生以下更广泛的影响。会议将加强和促进来自不同学科和不同国家的科学家和工程师之间的合作。它将吸引一些研究生，特别是妇女和代表性不足的少数民族，以培养下一代研究人员。会议的学术价值体现在与会的研究人员的高质量上，他们代表了来自世界顶级机构的主要实验室。它将为国家科学基金会提供有用的投入，作为在这一不断发展的领域进行投资的指导。非热等离子体是一种等离子体，或自由和随机移动离子的集合，其特点是低背景温度或能量，与高能量电子相结合。通常，非热等离子体可以使用各种高压放电（例如，交流、直流和脉冲）以及电子束来产生。非热等离子体在环境领域的最大商业应用是使用ac介质阻挡放电反应器来产生臭氧，通常随后用于水处理。非热等离子体的其他商业应用包括发电厂和焚烧炉的烟气处理以及室内空气净化。在过去的15年中，有相当大的兴趣和研究致力于测试，评估和开发用于其他应用的非热等离子体。这些其他应用包括处理气体中的挥发性和有害有机化合物，处理来自移动源废气的氮氧化物和颗粒物质，处理未受污染的水中的有机，无机和生物物质，合成化学过程以及危险化学和生物制剂的破坏。虽然臭氧生成技术相当成熟，但由于反应器性能对反应器设计和操作条件（例如，气体和/或液体组成、施加电场的性质、催化剂的添加和其他因素）的高度敏感性，其他应用的发展正在深入研究中。等离子体催化、气液放电现象和天然气烃类重整等领域的最新进展尤其有前景，有助于开发有用和高效的技术。

The 4th International Symposium on Non-thermal Plasma Technologies for PollutionControl and Sustainable Energy Development will be held in Panama City Beach, Florida, May 10-14, 2004. It is devoted to advancing the field of non-thermal plasma processes for environmental protection, including applications to air and water treatment and to sustainable energy processing. This meeting is intended to assemble experts from all over the world to present recent advances to the field and to discuss the prospects of these technologies for future development and study. The objectives of this meeting are therefore:1) to assemble key research groups working on the environmental applications of non-thermalplasma including air and water treatment and sustainable energy processing,2) to provide a stimulating environment to foster scientific exchange and discussion of the mostimportant current issues related to the development of this area of technology, and3) to conduct extensive discussions on the directions for future work and development.This award provides supplemental funding to support this conference through some travel and publication costs. This conference can lead to broader impacts as follows. The conference will enhance and promote collaboration among scientists and engineers from large variety of disciplines and from a wide range of nations. It will engage a number of graduate students, and particularly women and under-represented minorities in order to develop the next generation of researchers. The intellectual merit of the conference is reflected in the high quality of the participating researchers representing major laboratories from top institutions worldwide. It will provide useful input to NSF as a guide to grant investments in this evolving field.A non-thermal plasma is a plasma, or collection of free and randomly moving ions, that ischaracterized by low background temperature, or energy, in combination with highly energeticelectrons. Typically, non-thermal plasma can be produced using a wide variety of high voltageelectrical discharges (e.g., AC, DC, and pulsed) as well as with electron beams. The largestcommercial application of non-thermal plasma in the environmental field is the use of ACdielectric barrier discharge reactors for producing ozone, generally, subsequently used in watertreatment. Other commercial applications of non-thermal plasma include flue gas treatment frompower plants and incinerators and indoor air cleaning. Over the last 15 years there has beenconsiderable interest and research devoted to testing, evaluating, and developing non-thermalplasmas for other applications. These other applications include treatment of volatile andhazardous organic compounds in gases, treatment of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter fromthe exhaust of mobile sources, treatment of organic, inorganic, and biological matter incontaminated water, synthetic chemical processes, and destruction of hazardous chemical andbiological agents. While the technology for ozone generation is fairly mature, developments forother applications are intensively under investigation due to the high sensitivity of reactorperformance on the reactor design and operating conditions (e.g., gas and/or liquid composition,nature of applied electric field, addition of catalysts, and other factors). Recent developments inthe fields of plasma-catalysis, gas-liquid discharge phenomena, and hydrocarbon reforming fromnatural gas are particularly promising and can contribute to the development of useful and efficient technologies.