A versatile prototype plasma reactor for water treatment supporting different discharge regimes

A comparative evaluation is reported of the performance of different discharge regimes—AC powered dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) and DC powered corona discharge of positive (DC+) and negative (DC−) polarity—implemented within the same reactor, a benchtop prototype for an advanced oxidation stage in water treatment. For all three modes of operation, DBD, DC+ and DC−, the reactor performance was tested using phenol as model pollutant and determining the process energy efficiency (kE and G50), kinetics (t1/2), nitrated byproducts and extent of mineralization to CO2. Finally, comparison with a smaller DBD reactor of similar configuration previously used in our lab (Marotta et al 2011 Plasma Proc. Polym. 8 867) shows that scaling up was carried out successfully and holds promise for larger scale applications.