Abstract
A novel wastewater treatment process, acoustic cavitation assisted plasma (ACAP) is proposed in this study aiming at expanding the treatable range of water pollutants. In this process, the role of acoustic cavitation is not only to provide generation of chemically active radicals, but also to ensure conditions for stable plasma generation in wastewater and, thus, to extend the treatable range of water pollutants. Rhodamine B (RhB) was used as a model pollutant in experiments examining effects of electrical conductivity on the RhB degradation efficiency. A maximum degradation efficiency was observed in ACAP processes. Acoustic cavitation assists a transition of plasma discharge from ineffective streamer type to more effective spark type that further contributes to the improvement of the treatment performance.
