Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Application for Pollution Control in Industrial Processes

Economic application of atmospheric pressure plasma technology for industrial pollution control requires fulfilling two propositions: First application of pollution control technologies needs to result in clear environmental, health, or safety benefits motivating political measures. Second plasma technology needs to be competitive as compared to other available pollution control technologies. Thus in this article methods for the evaluation of atmospheric plasma application for industrial pollution control are reviewed: Examples of emission regulations and emission control technologies are given. Requirements of industrial scale emission control and of thermal and non‐thermal exhaust gas treatment technologies are described. The potential of various non‐thermal plasma reactor concepts for cost effective treatment of industrial scale gas flows is analyzed, and methods for the evaluation of plasma energy balance and plasma chemical kinetics are given for them. How to deal with shortcomings of atmospheric pressure plasmas such as lack of plasma‐chemical selectivity is addressed in a section about plasma‐catalytic hybrid processes. Further the progress made recently in electrostatic precipitation is reviewed, and the importance of electro‐hydrodynamic effects for the reactor design both for electrostatic precipitation and for plasma chemical pollution control is considered. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)