Removal of toluene by non-thermal plasma coupled with V-Ti catalysis

Removal of toluene by the combination of non-thermal plasma (NTP) and various catalysts was investigated in this study. Self-made wire-cylinder dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor energized by AC power supply was used in our experiment. Specific energy density (SED), energy efficiency (EY) and O₃ concentration of different reactor were investigated. The better catalyst was chosen, catalyst stability test was carried out, and the by-products in the reaction were determined and analyzed. The results show that compared with γ-Al₂O₃, V₂O₅-TiO₂/γ-Al₂O₃ catalysts can enhance the conversion of toluene, decrease SED and O₃ concentration and enhance EY. Stability test of V₂O₅-TiO₂/γ-Al₂O₃ catalyst show that toluene conversion decreases slowly with the reaction time, which indicates that the catalyst suffers slow deactivation, probably due to the accumulation of by-products over the catalyst surface. After calcinations in air for 3 h at 500℃, activity of the catalyst can be recovered.