Biosolid stabilization through dielectric barrier discharge reactor
DOI: 10.1063/10.0001111
Biosolid stabilization through dielectric barrier discharge reactor lead image
Cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAPP) systems have been studied for their environmental and industrial applications for several decades. Pasolari et al. previously proved that dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) can be used to deactivate the biological load of municipal solid waste in a CAPP system. The authors continue to study the efficiency of CAPP-based remediation techniques for biosolid stabilization by developing a model that simulates the effect of plasma on fluid flow and heat transfer in a DBD reactor.
“The plasma-based processing of biosolids is a novel approach to municipal waste treatment,” said author Polycarpos Papadopoulos. “In combination with features such as low power consumption and low degradation of treated material, it could become a competitive alternative to common sanitation methods.”
The model allows the study of the interaction between the plasma and the flow field, specifically the air flow and temperature. To characterize the fluid velocity and temperature of the system, the model only needs data on inflow rate, water mass of the evaporated biosolid and power consumption. It can be adapted to other CAPP-based environmental applications, such as soil remediation.
Inside the plasma region of the reactor, the temperature increased by no more than 100 kelvins, demonstrating the plasma does not degrade the biosolid.
“The fact that this temperature is not very high indicates that the plasma chemistry itself is an important factor of the stabilization process,” said Papadopoulos.
In the future, the authors intend on researching the chemical stabilization reactions and the reactive species they produce.
Source: “Macroscopic modeling of plasma effects on heat and fluid flow in a dielectric barrier discharge based process for biosolid stabilization,” by R. S. Pasolari, P. K. Papadopoulos, P. Svarnas, E. Giannakopoulos, I. Kalavrouziotis, S. Georga, and C. Krontiras, AIP Advances (2020). The article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5144385 .
