Online NOx Removal from Stationary Diesel Engine Exhaust by Barrier Discharge Plasma

This paper reports plasma treatment of a 5 HP stationary diesel engine exhaust at full flow-rate (approximately 387 l/min) energized by power frequency AC. Glass and Chlorinated Polyvinyl Chloride (CPVC) tubes were used as the dielectric barriers. Significant removal of NO and NOx has been achieved with barrier discharge plasma. The reactors were specially fabricated to facilitate high flow and high temperature associated with the engine exhaust. Among two type of reactor observed the CPVC reactor was energy efficient compared to glass reactor with the application of HVAC. Studies were aimed at online cleaning of oxides of nitrogen from the exhaust without using any conventional catalysts/ adsorbents. The studies indicate that there is a possibility of retrofitting the stationary diesel-generator set with non-thermal plasma reactor for significant control of NO/NOx instead of resorting to conventional adsorbent based removal techniques. The results were discussed in detail for the cases studied. Keywords—NOx removal, electric discharge plasma, online treatment, diesel engine exhaust Corresponding author: Sankarsan Mohapatro e-mail address: [email protected] 177 Mohapatro et al.