Decomposition of gaseous sulfide compounds in air by pulsed corona discharge

The effectiveness of applying a pulsed corona discharge to the destruction of olfactory pollution in air was investigated. This paper presents a comparative study of the decomposition of three representative sulfide compounds in diluted concentrations: hydrogen sulfide (H2S), dimethyl sulfide (DMS), and ethanethiol (C2H5SH), which could be completely removed when a sufficient but reasonable energy density was deposited in the gas. DMS showed the lowest energy cost (around 30 eV/molecules); C2H5SH and H2S had an EC of respectively 45 eV and 115 eV. The efficiency of the non-thermal plasma process increased with decreasing the initial concentration of sulfide compounds, while the energy yield remained almost unchanged. SO2 was the only identified byproduct of H2S decomposition, but the sulfur balance suggests the formation of undetected SO3. The byproducts analyzed during the degradation of DMS and C2H5SH enabled to propose a reaction mechanism, starting with radical attack and breaking of C-S bonds.