Duty factor effect on ozone production using dielectric barrier discharge reactor driven by IGBT pulse modulator

An ozone production using pulse voltage driven dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor was investigated experimentally to clarify an influence of a duty factor of applied pulse voltage on ozone yield. A square of 10 kV applied voltage was generated using a pulse modulator. Insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) switches were employed to generate the square pulse with 1 kHz in pulse repetition rate. Duty factor of the pulse voltage was controlled in range from 10 to 80% by timing of a gate signal to the IGBT switches. The output voltages of the power supply were applied to a multipoint electrode type DBD reactor in order to operate at low applied voltage. The ozone yield was obtained to be around 100 g/kWh at several thousands ppm ozone production in pure oxygen circumstance at 5 L/min. gas flow. The ozone yield decreased with increasing ozone concentration and was almost independent of the duty factor of square applied voltage under the present experimental condition. Power loss consumed in the pulse modulator was successfully reduced by decreasing duty factor of the output voltage without decrease of the ozone production.