The Degradation of Organic Pollutants by Bubble Discharge in Water

Organic pollutants could be degraded by using bubble discharge in water with gas aeration in the discharge reactor and more plasma can be generated in the discharge process. When pulsed high voltage was applied between electrodes with gas aerated into the reactor, it showed that bubbles were broken, which meant that breakdown took place. It could also be observed that the removal rate of phenol increased with increasing discharge voltage or pulse frequency, and with reducing initial phenol concentration or solution electric conductivity. It could remove more amount of phenol by oxygen aeration. With increasing oxygen flow rate, the removal rate increased. There was little difference with air or nitrogen aeration for phenol removal. The solution temperature after discharge increased to a great extent. However, this part of energy consumption did not contribute to the reaction, which led to a reduction in the energy utilization efficiency.