For the past three decades, electrical discharge-based non-thermal plasma treatment, with or without additional treatment techniques, is being used at the laboratory level for the abatement of various pollutant gases present in diesel exhaust. In the current work, a novel red mud packed surface discharge reactor has been proposed for exploring the possibility of treating the oxides of nitrogen (NO_X) and total hydrocarbons (THC) present in diesel exhaust using plasma catalysis. The inexpensive nature and abundant availability of industrial wastes like red mud makes them a feasible alternative to commercially available, expensive catalysts and adsorbents used in conventional exhaust treatment methods. In the current plasma catalysis study, a maximum NO_X removal of 96% and THC removal of 43% have been observed. NO_X removal studies using plasma-only and plasma-red mud cascade configurations were conducted, and the results were compared with those obtained using plasma catalysis to ascertain the increased contribution of plasma-activated red mud towards NO_X removal. The possible reaction mechanisms for NO_X/THC removal during plasma catalysis have been identified, and the results have been discussed at length for different engine loads emphasizing the role of plasma activation of red mud towards NO_X/THC removal.

在过去的 30 年中，基于放电的非热等离子体处理，无论是否采用额外的处理技术，都在实验室级别用于减少柴油机尾气中存在的各种污染物气体。在目前的工作中，已经提出了一种新型的赤泥填充表面放电反应器，以探索使用等离子体催化处理柴油机尾气中存在的氮氧化物 (NO _X ) 和总碳氢化合物 (THC)的可能性。工业废物（如赤泥）的廉价性质和丰富的可用性使其成为传统废气处理方法中使用的市售昂贵催化剂和吸附剂的可行替代品。在当前的等离子体催化研究中，最大的 NO _X已观察到 96% 的去除率和 43% 的 THC 去除率。进行了仅使用等离子体和等离子体红泥级联配置的NO _X去除研究，并将结果与​​使用等离子体催化获得的结果进行比较，以确定等离子体活化赤泥对 NO _X去除的贡献增加。已经确定了等离子体催化过程中去除NO _X /THC的可能反应机制，并且针对不同发动机负载对结果进行了详细讨论，强调了等离子体活化赤泥对去除NO _X /THC 的作用。