NOx Treatment Using Inductive-Energy-Storage Pulsed Power Generator

Fumito Endo, Non-member (Nagaoka University of Technology, endo@etigo.nagaokaut.ac.jp)

Weihua Jiang, Member (Nagaoka University of Technology, jiang@vos.nagaokaut.ac.jp)

Kiyoshi Yatsui, Member (Nagaoka University of Technology, yatsui@vos.nagaokaut.ac.jp)

Naohiro Shimizu, Member (NGK Insulators, Ltd., nshimizu@ngk.co.jp)

Keywords : pulsed corona discharge, SI-thyristor, NOx, inductive energy storage

Nitrogen oxides (NOx) by diesel combustion engines have wall. The total volume of the reactor is 0.05 l,
caused serious environmental problems. However, the amount of giving the average gas residual time of ~ 1.5 s at a flow rate of
NOx can hardly be reduced only by improving the combustion 2 l/min.
system, because NOx can be easily formed by oxygen and nitrogen Figure 2 shows NO removal rate as a function of input voltage,
at high temperature. A process of after treatment is required to with different inductively stored energy as a parameter.
remove NOx from the exhaust gas before it is released into the
atmosphere.
NOx removal can be achieved through chemical reactions. 50
5.8 [mJ]
Active radicals leading to various chemical reactions were
obtained by a non-equilibrium thermal plasma method. The
4.7 [mJ]
non-equilibrium thermal plasma method is considered to be 40 3.7 [mJ]
ε [%]

promising for NOx treatment of diesel exhaust gas.

In this paper, we report our experimental results obtained by
using a very compact pulsed-power generator. The objective of
30
this research is to develop a portable flue-gas system that can be
used on diesel vehicles.
Figure 1 shows the circuit diagram of compact pulsed-power
system, the inductive-energy-storage (IES) generator. 20
50 100 150
Input Voltage (E) [V]
Fig. 2 NO removal rate as a function of input voltage, in nitrogen
atmosphere. Initical NO concentration 500ppm, repetition rate of
500Hz.

Here, NO removal rate (ε) is defined by the following equation.

[NOx] – [NOx]’
ε= [NOx]
×100 [%] (1)

where [NOx] and [NOx’] are the initial and final NO

Fig.1 Circuit diagram of IES generator by SI-thyristor
The IES generator produces pulsed high voltage by cutting off
an inductive current using a SI-Thyristor. Since the circuit
operation is controlled by an FET, the IES generator is made to be
very compact.
A discharge reactor is a coaxial corona discharge cell consisting
of a tungsten wire at the center and a stainless-steel cylinder as the
concentrations [ppm], respectively. As seen from Fig. 2 the NO
removal rate increases as the input voltage is increased.
The experiments of NOx treatment by using an IES
pulsed-power generator and a coaxial corona discharge reactor
have given the following conclusions.
1. NO and NO2 can be decomposed in nitrogen atmosphere.
2. In N2/O2 atmosphere, the total concentration of NOx does not
change on the repetition rate.
3. Under a constant inductor-stored energy, the NO removal rate in
N2 atmosphere increases as the input voltage is increased.
4. The maximum NO removal efficiency obtained is ~ 50 g/kWh.