Synergistic Effects Between Plasma and Photocatalysis at Different Scales: Removal of Mixtures of Pollutants in Air

The elimination of isovaleraldehyde in air was experimentally studied in a tubular reactor that combines plasma barrier discharge (DBD) and photocatalysis. The influence of key parameters on the degree of pollution was tested. The study of the effect of residence time shows that when this parameter decreases, the elimination efficiency also decreases. When the residence time is reduced by five times, the removal efficiency drops from 83 to 59%. The influence of relative humidity shows that when this parameter increases, the CO2 selectivity’s are greater. The by-products identified and analyzed are classified into three groups: intermediate products, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and ozone. Regarding the org. components, we find that as the energy of the input plasma increases, this leads to a higher mineralization of the pollutant, i.e. the intermediate products formed decrease and the carbon dioxide increases. The mass balance of carbon products is reached at approximately 100%. The formation of ozone is favored by the increase in the input energy. It is interesting to note the existence of the synergy effect for a cocktail of pollutants such as the case of two aldehydes.