Abatement of 3-methylbutanal and trimethylamine with combined plasma and photocatalysis in a continuous planar reactor

• Effect of UV generated by plasma SDBD on TiO2 was investigated.
• The removal of 3-methylbutanal and trimethylamine was studied.
• The byproducts of 3-methylbutanal were identified and evaluated.
• The degradation pathways of 3-methylbutanal were discussed.
• A synergetic effect was observed by combining plasma SDBD and photocatalysis.

This paper deals with the 3-methylbutanal ((CH3)2CHCH2COH) removal with the help of a nonthermal surface plasma discharge coupled with photocatalysis. The capability of this process for gas treatment was studied. A planar reactor system was developed in order to perform the effect of adding photocatalytic material in plasma surface discharge barrier dielectric (SDBD) zone on (i) 3-methylbutanal removal, (ii) selectivity of CO2 and CO, (iii) byproducts formation such ozone formation.It was found that the influence of the UV light generated by SDBD reactor was very low. The activation of the photocatalyst media could be negligible. Whereas, the introduction of external UV light to the process improves significantly the removal efficiency of 3-methylbutanal (3MBA) and the mineralization. A synergetic effect was observed by combining plasma SDBD and photocatalysis from all experiments and with other pollutant such as trimethylamine (N(CH3)3). Moreover, the byproducts of 3MBA were identified and evaluated with plasma SDBD, photocatalysis and plasma SDBD/photocatalysis combination.