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Mechanisms of Pyrene Degradation during Soil Treatment in a Dielectric Barrier Discharge Reactor
Author(s) -
Ognier Stéphanie,
Rojo Jeanne,
Liu Yanan,
Duten Xavier,
Cavadias Siméon,
Thannberger Laurent
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
plasma processes and polymers
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.644
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1612-8869
pISSN - 1612-8850
DOI - 10.1002/ppap.201300077
Subject(s) - dielectric barrier discharge , pyrene , nonthermal plasma , ozone , degradation (telecommunications) , chemistry , plasma , pollutant , plasma cleaning , environmental chemistry , volumetric flow rate , chemical engineering , materials science , dielectric , organic chemistry , optoelectronics , telecommunications , physics , quantum mechanics , computer science , engineering
The remediation of pyrene contaminated sand using a dielectric barrier discharge reactor at atmospheric pressure is reported. The efficiency of ozone treatment has been studied and compared to the plasma treatment. In the case of ozone treatment, the pyrene removal reached rapidly a plateau and low removals (<50%) were therefore obtained. This phenomenon was explained by the formation of a layer of oxidized products that plays the role of a barrier and prevents ozone to react with the pollutants in the deep layers. In the case of a plasma treatment, the pyrene degradation efficiency was better and the plateau was not observed, allowing removals up to 95%. The effects of air flow rate and discharge power on pyrene removal were investigated. The results showed that the efficiency increased with the energy density (in J g −1 soil ), independently of the discharge power, but decreased with an increase of air flow. A thermal modeling showed that heating of the sand at the micro‐discharge impact may be high enough to increase dramatically the evaporation of pyrene, thus allowing all the pyrene molecules to be exposed to the oxidant species generated by the discharge. This phenomenon would explain the better performances obtained with plasma process compared to ozonation.