Ethylene epoxidation in a low-temperature parallel plate dielectric barrier discharge system with two frosted glass plates

The objective of this work was to investigate ethylene oxide (EO) performance in a low-temperature parallel plate dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) system with two frosted glass plates as the dielectric barrier material under ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure. A separate feed technique was used to reduce all undesirable reactions in order to maximize ethylene oxide production. The effects of applied voltage, input frequency, and O2/C2H4 feed molar ratio, as well as ethylene feed position, on ethylene epoxidation activity were examined. The DBD system with two frosted glass plates was found to provide the highest EO selectivity of 68.15% and the highest EO yield of 10.88% at 23 kV, 500 Hz, an O2/C2H4 feed molar ratio of 1:5, and an ethylene feed position fraction of 0.5, which gave double the EO yield of both DBD systems with single or two smooth dielectric glass plates.