Abstract
In the present work, a pulsed pin-to-plate corona reactor has been used for phenol removal from water. The main advantage of the present reactor is the presence of electrospraying of water drops at the tip of the discharge pin simultaneously with corona streamer. Electrospraying increases the treated surface area and therefore increases the efficiency of the water treatment. Also, the microdroplets of the sprayed water pass through the different regions of the discharge streamer and hence are in contact with the different plasma species which enhances the treatment process. The physical and chemical reactions of the plasma species affecting the phenol treatment have been discussed. Effects of the applied voltage, the running number of re-treatments, the phenol concentration, and the type of the working gas on the treatment process have been studied. At optimum conditions of the reactor, a percentage removal of phenol of 99.5% has been achieved with an efficiency of 2.5 g/kWh.