The Treatment of Water-Based Toxic Waste Using Induction Plasma Technology

A study of the treatment of liquid wastes in a radio frequency (rf) induction plasma reactor is reported. Ethylene glycol was used as a surrogate for the waste because of safety considerations. Thermodynamic analyses demonstrated complete and safe decomposition at the conditions studied. The solution was injected axially into the center of an argon–oxygen plasma operated at a plate power of 50 kW to study blast atomization and operating conditions. A factorial analysis revealed, at a confidence level of 0.99, that both reduction of pressure and liquid flow rate increase the destruction and removal efficiency (DRE) and that a higher plate power increased DRE. The study also revealed that poor atomization was responsible for the reduction of the DRE by 10–15% (to 80–85%) and that 94% of the exothermic energy of the reaction was available for further use. The specific energy requirement (SER) of the process was estimated at 8.33 kWh/kg of solute. This value can be expected to drop significantly with scale-up of the process.