Treatment of dichloromethane using gliding arc plasma

Decomposition of dichloromethane (CH2Cl2) using a gliding plasma was examined and reported in this paper. The effects of initial concentrations of CH2Cl2, total gas flow rates, and input frequency have been studied to evaluate the performance of gliding arc on CH2Cl2 decomposition. Using atmospheric pressure air as the carrier gas, experimental results indicate that the maximum conversion of CH2Cl2 was 95.1% at a total gas flow rate of 180 L/hr containing 1% by volume of CH2Cl2. The reaction occurred at an exothermic condition and gaseous products are dominated by CO, CHCl3, and Cl-2. CO2 and CCl4 are also detected in the product stream in small amounts. The conversion of CH2Cl2 increases with the increasing applied voltage and decreasing total gas flow rate.