NO X abatement from filtered diesel engine exhaust using battery‐powered high‐voltage pulse power supply

The dielectric barrier discharge‐based non‐thermal plasma technique is one of the most prominent techniques which give peerless results in controlling the concentration of NO X . However, when it comes to the automobile diesel engine, availability of high‐voltage pulse power supply is the major constraint. In this study, battery‐powered high‐voltage pulse power supply for NO X treatment has been proposed. Two types of electrodes: rod type and rod with helical spring type are studied for the treatment of exhaust. Cascaded plasma‐adsorbent technique has also been used to enhance NO X removal efficiency. Experiments have been conducted with two different gas flow rates, i.e. 4 l and 6 l/min at laboratory level and have got significant results toward removal of NO X . When the exhaust has been treated with plasma alone, the reactor with rod‐type electrode has shown 85% NO X removal efficiency at a specific energy (SE) of 283 J/l with a flow rate of 4 l/min. When the plasma reactor is cascaded with the adsorbent reactor, both adsorbents: 13x molecular sieve (MS13x) and activated alumina are able to remove 100% of NO X with the proposed power supply at a lesser SE.