Experimental Study on DEP Degradation in Water by Double Grounded Electrode DBD Reactor

Abstract

In recent years, due to the rapid development of industrialisation, plasticisers can be commonly detected in the aqueous environment, and diethyl phthalate (DEP), as an o-phenyl plasticiser, is an emerging pollutant in the aqueous environment, which endangers human health and damages the environment. In this study, a double grounded dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma was utilised for the degradation of DEP wastewater, and a packed-bed reactor was designed so that the degradation rate of DEP was enhanced by the enhanced discharge effect. This paper compares the investigation of the packing performance of different packing materials in the DBD plasma discharge space, optimising a conventional DBD plasma, and testing the filling of different filling materials (glass spheres and glass tubes) in a DBD reactor. Response surface method was used to determine the effect of different materials between size, packing volume and through air flow rate and optimisation experiments were carried out. When glass spheres are used as filler material, the removal rate of the response output optimum can reach 96.62%; When the glass tube is used as filler material, the response output optimum value of 89.78% removal can be achieved. The degradation of DEP by various active particles within the filled-bed DBD discharge system was investigated by free radical inhibition experiments. The removal rates were 17.81%, 48.30% and 17.81% after 40 min of discharge treatment with 5 mmoL/L IPA, BQ and PS, respectively.