Plasma Catalytic Oxidation of Stored Benzene in a Cycled Storage-Discharge (CSD) Process: Catalysts, Reactors and Operation Conditions

High energy cost and secondary pollutants formation makes the plasma-based technique impractical. To solve these problems, the effects of different catalysts, reactor configurations and operating conditions on plasma catalytic oxidation of stored benzene in a cycled storage-discharge process were investigated in detail. It is shown that the catalysts and reactor configurations were the main factors affecting the plasma catalytic oxidation of stored benzene. When 0.8 wt% Ag/HZSM-5 catalysts and in-plasma catalytic reactor are used, the stored benzene could be oxidized completely to CO2 in a very short discharge period and almost no secondary pollutant formation is observed. In addition, the relative humidity of air streams at storage stage showed little influence on the plasma catalytic oxidation of stored benzene. When the storage period increased from 1 to 14 h, a small increase of discharge period from 9 to 24 min was required to achieve similar to 100% conversion of stored benzene to CO2.