Degradation of Benzene by Using a Silent-Packed Bed Hybrid Discharge Plasma Reactor

In this work, a novel gas phase silent-packed bed hybrid discharge plasma reactor has been proposed, and its ability to control a simulative gas stream containing 240 ppm benzene is experimentally investigated. In order to optimize the geometry of the reactor, the benzene conversion rate and energy yield (EY) were compared for various inner electrode diameters and quartz tube shapes and sizes. In addition, benzene removal efficiency in different discharge regions was qualitatively analyzed and the gas parameter (space velocity) was systematically studied. It has been found that silent-packed bed hybrid discharge plasma reactor can effectively decompose benzene. Benzene removal proved to achieve an optimum value of 60% with a characteristic energy density of 255 J/L in this paper with a 6 mm bolt high-voltage electrode and a 13 mm quartz tube. The optimal space velocity was 188.1 h(-1), which resulted in moderate energy yield and removal efficiency. Reaction by-products such as hydroquinone, heptanoic acid, 4-nitrocatechol, phenol and 4-phenoxy-phenol were identified by mean of GC-MS. In addition, based on these organic by-products, a benzene destruction pathway was proposed.