Developing Multiplexed Plasma Micro-Reactor for Ozone Intensification and Wastewater treatment

Abstract The development of non-thermal plasma-based wastewater treatment technologies is a challenging topic of research these days. The conventional domestic ozonators based on corona, are susceptible to arcing, produce less ozone due to low input power, and yield larger bubbles limiting mass transfer rate. The article proposes a new design- multiplexed system containing six Corona-DBD hybrid packed-bed plasma micro-reactors connected in parallel to significantly improve the said design problems. The reactor gives enhanced ozone generation due to characteristics of corona (high concentration of radicals), DBD (homogeneous discharge), and packing material (stronger electric field). The diffuser configuration yields high number density of microbubbles enhancing mass transfer. The optimized multiplexed reactor improves ozone generation by 4.8 folds at 5.8 kVpk, 20 kHz, 76 mA, 1 LPM, and 5 cm electrode length producing 480.8 ppm ozone in 20 sec. The reactor efficiency was evaluated using Methyl orange. The energy yield of the plasma reactor was also evaluated for MO solution. At optimized reactor conditions, 86% Methyl orange was removed at pH 3, 10 ppm, and 900 ml in 8 minutes, and COD was reduced to 74%. The multiplexed design offers an effective replacement for conventional ozone generators for about 1 litre capacity in less than 10 minutes.