Development of Multi-gas Inductively Coupled Plasma Source and its Application for Anesthetic Gas Decomposition

摘要

Nitrous oxide (N_(2)O) gas has been used for the main ingredient of anesthetic gas for medical operation. It has 310 times higher global warming potential compare with CO_(2) and 150 years lifetime. Also, a few cases were reported that long time exposing N_(2)O on human body may cause sterility. However, almost all-anesthetic gas has been released after medical operations without any treatments. In this study, multi-gas inductively coupled plasma (ICP) source for gas treatment was developed and direct decomposition of the anesthetic gas was tested. Generation of atmospheric plasma using actual composition anesthetic gas was succeeded. As a result, 99.98percent of decomposition rate and 590 g/kWh of decomposition energy efficiency were achieved.