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Recent Development of Technology in Scale-up of Plasma Reactors for Environmental and Energy Applications

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Abstract

To date, numerous studies have investigated the aftertreatment of exhaust gases from fossil-fueled combustors and combustion engines by plasmas as an environmental plasma application. Owing to the high power requirements of environmental plasma, it is difficult to use the plasma alone for aftertreatment; hence, a hybrid process that combines plasma processing with other techniques is required to reduce the overall power consumption. In developing countries, low-cost plasma hybrid processing has attracted considerable attention as an alternative to the selective catalytic reduction NOx decomposition (De-NOx) method and wet lime–gypsum SOx decomposition method. Moreover, reduced catalytic activity can be enhanced by the plasma because of the decreased exhaust gas temperature, owing to the increased combustion efficiency. This paper reviews studies on successful air pollutant decomposition processes using the plasma chemical process with scale-up reactors. First, experimental techniques and block diagrams of various environmental plasma systems are presented. Subsequently, real-world systems of scale-up plasma reactors are described in detail. Several experimental results suggest that the hybrid treatment of particulate matter and dry De-NOx is very promising from the viewpoint of energy consumption and material recycling. CO2 treatment is a very important direction for future work in environmental plasma.

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Acknowledgements

Much of the research presented in this review was conducted through a collaboration by Dr. Tomoyuki Kuroki, Dr. Takuya Kuwahara, Dr. Haruhiko, Yamasaki, and Dr. Hidekatsu Fujishima of Osaka Prefecture University, Dr. Keiichiro Yoshida of Osaka Institute of Technology, Dr. Hashira Yamamoto of Nihon Yamamura Glass Co., Ltd., Kenichi Hanamoto and Kazutoshi Sato of Daihatsu Diesel MFG. Co., Ltd., and Keiichi Otsuka and Atsushi Tanaka of Takao Iron Works Co., Ltd.

Funding

This work is supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP20H02374.

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  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka Prefecture University, 1-1 Gakuen-cho, Naka-ku, Sakai, 599-8531, Japan

    Masaaki Okubo

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Correspondence to Masaaki Okubo.

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Okubo, M. Recent Development of Technology in Scale-up of Plasma Reactors for Environmental and Energy Applications. Plasma Chem Plasma Process 42, 3–33 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11090-021-10201-7

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