Decomposition of dilute trichloroethylene by using nonthermal plasma processing-frequency and catalyst effects

Decomposition performance of a dilute toxic organic compound, trichloroethylene (TCE) in air by using nonthermal processing was studied related with its excitation frequency dependence and plasma combination effect with catalyst. Two reactors, coil type and bolt type plasma reactors were tested for frequency dependence tests. For TCE decomposition, 50 Hz excitation was the most efficient in energy among three frequencies: 50 Hz; 500 Hz; and 2 kHz. However, for ozone generation, 500 Hz excitation was good. For a coil type reactor, 500 Hz excitation was better than 50 Hz excitation. V/sub 2/O/sub 5//TiO/sub 2/ catalyst and Cu-ZSM-5 were effective in decomposing TCE but cordierite did not work at all. Especially, V/sub 2/O/sub 5//TiO/sub 2/ catalyst worked well with nonthermal plasma for TCE decomposition.