Treatment of Dichloromethane Using Gliding Arc Plasma.

Decomposition of dichloromethane (CH 2 Cl 2 ) using a gliding plasma was examined and reported in this paper. The effects of initial concentrations of CH 2 Cl 2 , total gas flow rates, and input frequency have been studied to evaluate the performance of gliding arc on CH 2 Cl 2 decomposition. Using atmospheric pressure air as the carrier gas, experimental results indicate that the maximum conversion of CH 2 Cl 2 was 95.1% at a total gas flow rate of 180 L/hr containing 1% by volume of CH 2 Cl 2 . The reaction occurred at an exothermic condition and gaseous products are dominated by CO, CHCl 3 , and Cl 2 . CO 2 and CCl 4 are also detected in the product stream in small amounts. The conversion of CH 2 Cl 2 increases with the increasing applied voltage and decreasing total gas flow rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]