Towards the purification of liquid water by direct plasma injection: Technical challenges and ongoing efforts at the university of Michigan'S plasma science and technology laboratory

摘要

Plasma production or plasma injection in liquid water affords one the opportunity to nonthermally inject advanced oxidation processes into water for the purpose of purification or chemical processing. Such technology could potentially revolutionize the treatment of drinking water as well as current methods of chemical processing where with plasmas, physical catalysts can be eliminated. As such, the field is an active area of research. Limitations of current injection approaches include limited throughput capacity, electrode erosion, and reduced process volume. Ongoing efforts to address these issues by the utilization of an underwater plasma jet are discussed. Findings from preliminary toxicology studies of plasma-treated samples are also reported.