Application of flying jet plasma torch in wastewater treatment

The technologies for wastewater treatment are well-established; however, the goals for sustainable environmental management require more efforts in finding new robust and efficient methods with improved eco-friendly and optimized cost. Non-thermal plasma is considered a promising method in this respect due to the high degree of controllability,reduced cost and lower environmental impacts. In the current study, we investigated the application of flying jet plasma torch in the treatment of wastewater samples collected from different parts of Nizwa Sewage Treatment Plant. The objective was to contemplate the performance of novel approach that may induce higher treatment efficiency at reducedcost. Upon using plasma treatment for several durations (15 minutes to 2 hours), the results exhibited by the bacterial growth curve suggest a significantly higher reduction in biological and chemical oxygen demands as well as the de-activation of the microbial activity for several hours. The current findings show this considerable worth and indicatethe feasibility of using jet plasma for wastewater treatment applications.  The proposed technique was shown competitive to traditional wastewater treatment techniques in terms of process time, efficiency and operationalcost.