Oxidation of Hydrocarbon Through Corona Discharge: Oxidation of Ethylene

Oxidation of hydrocarbon through Corona Discharge: Oxidation of Ethylene

Yousef Alnazi, Peter Kreider, Alex Yokochi, Goran Jovanovic

One of the major sources of air pollution is the release of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from sources such as the chemical industry and petroleum refineries. As a result, various methods for VOC removal, such as liquid absorption, condensation, biodegradation, and catalytic combustion have been studied.  Of these, catalytic combustion is particularly useful, but not readily amenable to intermittent operation.

In this work, the possibility of employing low voltage corona discharge for the complete destruction of VOCs by converting them to carbon dioxide and water is explored. For the purpose a microchannel device was constructed equipped with a carbon nanotube based emitter electrode, and its performance using ethylene gas and atmospheric oxygen evaluated.  Our results for product distribution as a function of power applied to the reactor will be discussed, and the energetic efficiency of the process analyzed.