Scaling of silent electrical discharge reactors for hazardous organics destruction

Silent electrical discharges are used to produce highly reactive free radicals that destroy hazardous compounds entrained in gaseous effluents at ambient gas temperatures and pressures. We have carried out destruction experiments at Los Alamos on a range of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including trichloroethylene (TCE), carbon tetrachloride, perchloroethylene (PCE), and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). We have measured a ``nine-factor``, the amount of energy required to reduce the VOC concentration by a factor of ten. For practical reactor power densities, the ``nine-factor`` can be used to predict the destruction an removal efficiency (DRE) in terms of gas flow rate and the number of reactor modules. This report proposes a modular, stackable architecture for scaling up the reactor throughput.