SBIR Phase I: Microwave-Induced Non-Thermal Plasma for Volatile Organic Compound Emission Control

有害空气污染物（HAP）的排放，特别是挥发性有机化合物（VOC），越来越受到关注，因为它们是我们今天面临的主要环境问题的主要贡献者，例如：1 -3随着1990年《清洁空气法修正案》（CAAA）的通过，该修正案要求提高对特定有机化合物的控制水平，已授权对控制这些废物流的技术进行了解和重大开发。为了满足不同工艺过程中减少VOC排放的需要，我们提出了一种有效、低成本销毁和去除VOC的创新方法。与其他传统的通过提高污染气体的温度来燃烧VOC的方法不同，所提出的方法利用非热等离子体的性质来产生自由基以直接氧化废气中的VOC。这里介绍的VOC氧化方法的潜力源于这样一个事实，即自由基与VOC分子反应的方式通常与非常高的温度有关。污染气体中会产生自由基。所提出的设备将导致最小的，如果有的话，在废气流的压降;此外，它唯一的能源需求是相对较低的平均电源，其磁控管。预计该设备将在广泛的温度范围内运行，并且无需维护。 拟议的项目预计将导致开发一种新技术，用于从废气中去除不受欢迎的VOC。所提出的方法可以方便地与几乎任何其他污染控制措施相结合。由于采用了“管道末端”的方法，因此只需要对现有排气系统的操作和系统本身进行微小的修改（如果有的话），就可以适应新技术。

Emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAP's), specifically volatile organic compounds(VOC's), are an increasing concern because they are major contributors to the predominant environmental problems facing us today such as: global warming, ozone depletion, andphotochemical smog.1-3 With the passage of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA),which require increased levels of control for specific organic compounds, theunderstanding and significant development of technologies for controlling these wastestreams have been mandated. Responding to the need to decrease VOC emission fromdifferent technological processes, we propose the development of an innovative method foran effective, low cost destruction and removal of VOC's. Unlike other conventionalmethods which burn VOC by raising the temperature of the contaminated gases, the proposedmethod uses properties of non-thermal plasma to generate free radicals to oxidize the VOCdirectly in the exhaust gas. The potential of the approach for VOC oxidation presentedhere stems from the fact that free radicals react with VOC molecules in a way normallyassociated with a very high temperature. The free radicals will be generated in thecontaminated gas. The proposed device will cause a minimal, if any, pressure drop in theexhaust stream; moreover, its only energy requirement is the relatively low average power supply to its magnetron. It is expected that this device will operate in a wide range of temperatures, and will be maintenance free. The proposed project is expected to result in the development of a new technology for removing undesirable VOC's from exhaust gases. The proposed method can be conveniently combined with virtually any other pollution-control measure. Due to the 'end-of-pipe' approach, only minor, if any, modifications in the operation of the existing exhaust system and in the system itself will be required to accommodate the new technique.