Effect of hydrogen generated by dielectric barrier discharge of NH3 on selective non-catalytic reduction process

Plasma-assisted selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) has been investigated to clarify which species generated by the plasma play a crucial role in NO reduction. We find that the presence of O2 is indispensable and only H2 is observed to be a stable product by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) of NH3. As the extent of NH3 decomposition by DBD increases, the commencement temperature of SNCR processes is lowered and the working temperature window is widened. This propensity may be attributed to the chemical reaction of H2 with O2 to generate OH and H radicals which make it possible to yield NH2 radicals even at low temperature.