Treatment of nitrogen oxides using nanosecond width pulsed power

Nitrogen oxides (NOx) are one of the air pollutants that cause acid rain. While the principal method of NOx treatment is a chemical processing, the treatment using pulsed power has been developed. Non-thermal equilibrium plasma produced with streamer discharge treats the NOx. The treatment using pulsed power is efficient and the cost of the equipment is low. A pulse shortening of pulsed power would not only improve the efficiency of the treatment but decrease the residual substance since higher electric field is applied on the medium without breakdowns. Using the developed nanosecond pulsed power generator, the voltage pulses with nanosecond width are applied on the volume. The efficient treatment of NOx is achieved; however, the preference of proper experimental conditions is difficult. This is because the configuration of reactor processing NOx, as well as the matching between the generator and the reactor are critical in choice. Although the removal ratios have some errors owing to technical problems due to the NOX detector, several characteristics of the treatment become clear. Nevertheless, further experiments are required.