Experimental Investigation on the Effect of a Microsecond Pulse and a Nanosecond Pulse on NO Removal Using a Pulsed DBD with Catalytic Materials

In this study, an experimental investigation of the removal of NO from an atmospheric air stream has been carried out with a non-thermal plasma dielectric barrier discharge reactor filled with different catalytic materials. TiO\(_2\), CuO–MnO\(_2\)–TiO\(_2\), CuO–MnO\(_2\)–Al\(_2\)O\(_3\) catalysts were used to study the synergy between the plasma and the catalysts. The NO\(_\mathrm{{x}}\) removal efficiency and by-products formation were studied as a function of energy density, pulse rise time and width using a plasma catalytic configuration. It was observed that the shorter pulses are more efficient for NO\(_\mathrm{{x}}\) removal but at the expense of higher by-products formation such as N\(_2\)O and O\(_3\). A comparison has been made between an in-plasma catalytic configuration and a post-plasma catalytic configuration. Among all the three catalysts that were studied, CuO–MnO\(_2\)–TiO\(_2\) catalyst showed the best performance with respect to the removal efficiency as well as the by-products formation in both the in-plasma and the post-plasma catalytic configuration. In general, the post-plasma configuration showed better results with respect to low by-products formation.