Technology for decomposition of hazardous gases using both plasma and catalyst effects at one atmospheric pressure

Abstract

Technologies for decomposition of hazardous gases such as CO2, CH4, PFC, NOx and SF6 have been investigated as environmental issues since around 1995. The treatment method has been expanded from that using catalytic technology to that using synergis-tic technologies between catalyst and plasma. The conditions of the applied technologies were changed from that under vacuum (equilibrium plasma) to that at one atmospheric pressure (non-equilibrium plasma). We have been researching and developing funda-mental chemical reactions using the developed chemical reactor PACT ( Plasma Assisted Catalytic Technology, US patent 5,474,747:1995), which has both plasma and catalyst effects, that is, the plasma formed between electrodes and the catalyst on the surface of electrodes. We successfully carried out the decomposition of dioxin, and found the following effects; (1)Catalytic effect on chemical reactions, (2) Photo-catalyst effect into the electrode, (3)Energy transfer effect between radicals of reactions and carrier gases and so on. We report these results in this paper.