Effect of temperature on removal of toluene vapor using the electron attachment reaction

Abstract

To investigate the effect of temperature on toluene removal using electron attachment reaction. Because of the high temperature found in the exhaust gas from many industrial sources, temperature effect must be understood in order to scale up of the corona discharge reactor. The other parameters investigated are the cathode diameter, discharge current, inlet concentration, percentage of oxygen and the amount of water vapor in the gas stream. As seen from the experimental results, the removal efficiency per residence time generally increases with the temperature. It is found that the thicker the cathode diameter, the higher the discharge current, or the higher the percentage of coexisting oxygen, the removal efficiency becomes. On the other hand, the higher the inlet concentration of toluene or water vapor, the lower the removal efficiency becomes. Though the analysis of the deposit sample found the glass section at the top of the reactor has been carried out using a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer, the identification of the compounds is not completed yet. However, the evidence strongly suggests that polymerization of toluene may occur. Moreover, in the case of 30 percent oxygen, ozone concentration is measured and found to decrease when the temperature increases, while NOx increases with the temperature