Plasma Chemical Method of Decreasing the Ethylene Impurities in the Air

Abstract

The efficiency of ethylene impurities decomposition in barrierless plasma-chemical system during artificial injection into the air of a sea container has been studied. The experimental study was performed at the air temperature 5oC in container volume 65 m3. The initial level of ozone in the air was 100 ppb. This concentration is below concentration which audible to humans. It has been established that the use of a carbon filter after a plasma chemical system allows to maintain the ozone content in the air at an acceptable level (in terms of human health and food storage). During 24 hours the ethylene concentration increases until an equilibrium concentration is reached. After the plasma chemical rector was switched on, the ethylene concentration in the container began to decrease due to decomposition in the low-temperature plasma and interaction with ozone until new equilibrium concentration was reached. The ozone concentration after plasma chemical reactor was switched to begin increased. After 1 hour, the new minimum equilibrium ethylene and ozone concentration was established. The decrease in concentration occurred exponentially and reached a new equilibrium concentration above zero, which is consistent with the theory. The increase in ozone concentration occurs by about 20-25%. It has been shown that using plasma chemical system based on barrierless plasma chemical reactors can reduce the ethylene concentration by up to 10 times, even for low concentrations of ethylene in the air.

Keywords

• ethylene
• plasma chemistry barrierless reactor