Abatement of Gas-phase p-Xylene via Dielectric Barrier Discharges

The effectiveness of applying dielectric barrier discharges (DBDs) to remove p-xylene from gas streams was experimentally investigated in this study. Parameters investigated include applied voltage, gas flow rate, gas temperature and gas composition. Experimental results indicate that as high as 100% p-xylene removal efficiency is achieved for the gas stream containing low p-xylene concentration of 26 ppmv. Removal efficiency of p-xylene achieved with DBDs increases with increasing applied voltage. However, energy consumption is also increased with increasing applied voltage. The best energy efficiency of 7.1 g/kWh is achieved for the gas streams containing 500 ppmv p-xylene, 5% O₂, 1.6% H₂O_(g), and balanced N₂ at the applied voltage of 18 kV. Product analysis indicates that around 70 or 95% of the carbons in p-xylene molecules are transformed into carbon dioxide for the gas streams without or with water vapor, respectively.