Investigation of the usage of plasma systems in the field of environmental engineering

Non-thermal atmospheric pressure plasma jets are of increasing importance in various plasma assisted applications. In the design of the system, treatment was carried out as a result of contacting the wastewater by creating an atmospheric plasma field that directs an electric current from a low pressure gas flow. With this study, wastewater treatment efficiency was investigated by using a plasma jet reactor that allows liquid (water) purification at atmospheric pressure for the first time in our country. It is very difficult to remove the color found in the wastewater of some industries such as textile and paint industries, from the wastewater with traditional methods. Therefore, in the study, the effectiveness of color removal was increased by using an atmospheric pressure plasma system. The removal efficiencies of methylene blue (MB), methyl orange (MO) as model dyes are compared. Oxygen and argon gas were tried as feed gas. Plasma treatment results at 5 min plasma treatment times and 12 mg/L flow rates were evaluated for two different dyes. It was observed that the highest removal efficiencies of 99% for MB and 97% for MO were obtained at initial concentrations of 20 mg/L. For the argon gas test, 97% removal efficiency was obtained for the methylene blue model dye. In the study, energy efficiency was calculated as 15.32 mg/kWh and reaction rate constant 0.85 (1/min) for the highest color removal efficiency (MB, 99%). In the study, pomegranate wastewater sample was tried as a colored wastewater sample. The COD removal efficiencies for methylene blue, methyl orange and pomegranate wastewater samples subjected to plasma treatment were 88.6%, 83.7% and 98.4%, respectively. In addition, it was investigated whether there is any toxic effect caused by the radicals formed in the system. For this, the Lepidium Sativum toxicity test was used. And no toxic effect from the system was observed. In conclusion; In this study, the usability of the atmospheric plasma system, which is a new technology in the field of water treatment in our country, was evaluated, inspired by the studies on the usability of plasma technology in water treatment in the world.