Pulsed corona plasma pilot plant for VOC abatement in industrial streams

A pulsed corona plasma-based mobile pilot plant was developed for demonstration of the emerging technology for volatile organic compounds (VOC) abatement in industrial streams of paper and wood industry. Pilot plant development was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Industrial Technologies in the framework of the Forest Products program. The heterogeneous pulsed corona discharge was chosen as the best non-equilibrium plasma approach for control of the vent emissions from Brownstock Washers in paper industry, and the pilot plant was initially designed for demonstration on this kind of vent stream. Later it was modified for possibility of operation in the wood industry where water discharge is prohibited. The technology base of the pilot plant, as well as history of its development and the results obtained during testing are presented in this paper. For VOCs of interest to the paper and wood industry, (methanol, acetone, dimethyl sulfide and alpha-pinene), high removal efficiencies were obtained with power consumptions competitive with the present technologies for the VOCs control.