Evaluation of energy transfer and utilization efficiency of azo dye removal by different pulsed electrical discharge modes

The degradation of an azo dye, acid orange 7 (AO7), caused by different high voltage pulsed electrical discharge modes (spark, streamer and corona discharge) induced by the various initial conductivities was investigated. A new type of pulsed high voltage source with thyratron switch and Blumlein pulse forming net (BPFN) was used. The typical discharge waveforms of voltage, current, power, pulse energy and the pictures of spark, streamer and corona discharge modes were presented. The results indicated that pulsed electrical discharges led to complete decolorization and substantial decrease of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of the dye solution. The main intermediate products were monitored by GC-MS. The discharge modes changed from spark to streamer and to corona discharge, and the streamer length decreased with the liquid conductivity increasing. At a constant input power, the peak voltage, peak current, peak power and energy per pulse of the three discharge modes ranked in the following order: spark > streamer > corona. The effective energy transfer efficiency of AO7 removal was higher for spark discharge (57.2%) than for streamer discharge (40.4%) and corona discharge (27.6%). Moreover, the energy utilization efficiency of AO7 removal for spark discharge was 1.035×10⁹ mol/J, and for streamer and corona discharge they were 0.646×10⁻⁹ and 0.589×10⁻⁹ mol/J. Both the energy transfer efficiency and the energy utilization efficiency of spark discharge were the highest. Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 20336030, 90610005, 20576120 and U0633003), and Distinguished Youth Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Grant No. RC 02060)