Abstract
PFCs (Perfluorocarbons) gases have a high Global Warming Potential (GWP) and a long lifetime in the atmosphere. It needs an enormous energy to decompose these gases, because they have the tetrahedral structure and/or the strong C-F bond. Even though there is no regulation against air pollution for the emission of these gases, they should be treated by such as the high-efficient decomposition technology. The purpose of this study is to develop a high efficiency method for the PFCs gases with a high decomposition rate and low cost compared with existing methods. For these purpose, we used combustion method assisted by catalyst and non-equilibrium plasma. The plasma equipment was set just above the flame. Non-equilibrium plasma was discharged with high voltage. The liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) were used as energy source of flame. As a result of these experiments, we achieved the decomposition rate over 99.9% for CF4 by using the hybrid combustion method with catalyst and non-equilibrium plasma. It is considered that the reason of these results is caused by the effect of the activation energy for catalyst and radicals for plasma. In the low concentration (lower than 5%), CF4 gas is decomposed over 99.9% by only combustion method, and the decomposition rate is improved by using the catalyst.
