Intensification of Ozone Generation and Degradation of Azo Dye in Non-Thermal Hybrid Corona-DBD Plasma Micro-Reactor

Abstract A novel corona-dielectric barrier discharge hybrid non-thermal plasma micro-reactor was investigated for ozone generation and pollutant degradation. It was hypothesized that creating a submicron channel inside the micro-reactor would increase ozone generation efficiency. Therefore, the plasma micro-reactor was packed with dielectric glass beads. The plasma micro-reactor operating conditions were investigated for ozone formation. The efficiency of the empty channel plasma reactor was compared with the packed-bed plasma reactor which was 24% higher than the former at optimized conditions-5 kV peak voltage, 36 mA peak current, 26.02 kHz frequency, 1 Lmin-1 air flow rate, and 4 cm electrode length. The performance of the reactor was evaluated for the degradation of Reactive black-5. The plasma micro-reactor operating conditions and the dye operational parameters- pH of the solution, initial dye concentration, and volume of solution were also investigated to see the efficiency of reactive black-5 removal in the plasma reactor. The dye degradation efficiency increased by 50% in the packed-bed plasma micro-reactor as compared to the empty channel reactor. In the empty channel reactor, 98% reactive-black-5 was removed with 87% COD reduction in 16 minutes, and in the packed-bed reactor, 98.3% was removed with 89% COD reduction in 8 min of the plasma treatment.