Direct Amination of Benzene with Ammonia by Flow Plasma Chemistry

Amine derivatives, including aniline and allylic amines, can be formed in a single-step process from benzene and an ammonia plasma in a microreactor. Different process parameters such as temperature, residence time, and plasma power were evaluated to improve the reaction yield and its selectivity toward aminated products and avoid hydrogenated or oligomerized products. In parallel, simulation studies of the process have been carried out to propose a global mechanism and gain a better understanding of the influence of the different process parameters. The exploration of diverse related alkenes showed that the double bonds, conjugation, and aromatization influenced the amination mechanism. Benzene was the best reactant for amination based on the lifetime of radical intermediates. Under optimized conditions, benzene was aminated in the absence of catalyst with a yield of 3.8 % and a selectivity of 49 % in various amino compounds.

Plasma activated 1-hexene oligomerization in a gas-liquid microreactor

The oligomerization of 1-hexene under argon plasma was investigated in a gas-liquid, continuous flow microreactor. The evolution of the yields of the reaction products as a function of the residence...

Fast carbonylation reaction from CO2 using plasma gas/liquid microreactors for radiolabeling applications

The major challenge for ¹¹C-radiolabelling is the short half-life time of ¹¹C (t_1/2 = 20.4 min) – in this study, a novel efficient process combining microfluidics and plasma is proposed for fast carbonylation reactions from CO₂.

Electrocatalytic behaviour of CeZrOx-supported Ni catalysts in plasma assisted CO2 methanation

Plasma and thermo-catalytic methanation were assayed in the presence of a CeZrO_x-supported Ni catalyst. High CO₂ conversions and high methane yields were obtained under DBD plasma, and are maintained with time-on-stream over 100 h operating time.

Microfluidic chips for plasma flow chemistry: application to controlled oxidative processes

A novel biphasic gas/liquid plasma microreactor performed controlled oxidation of cyclohexane into “KA oil” with more than 70% selectivity and more than 10% conversion.

Conception of a novel spray tower plasma-reactor in a spatial post-discharge configuration: Pollutants remote treatment

This paper describes a novel gliding Arc discharge reactor producing a non-thermal plasma at atmospheric pressure in humid air. The ionized gas is generated in a spray-tower absorber for the treatment of organic pollutants. The reactor configuration enables the plasma-degradation of micro-droplets effluents in the spatial post-discharge mode. This type of design allows to exclude the direct contact between the plasma plume and the liquid to be treated in order to avoid the liquid heating and the flame extinction problems. A hydrodynamic study coupling 'Navier-Stokes' equations and those of 'Convection-Diffusion' allowed to calculate the concentration profiles and the droplet falling velocity. The stripping of phenol was studied to valid the hydrodynamic approach. Experiences and simulations showed that after 1h of treatment, only 5% of the compound was transferred into the plasma phase. The spatiality of the novel reactor allowed a degradation rate of 100% for catechol after 38min of plasma-treatment. For 4-nitrophenol, the degradation rate reached 90% after 120min. Phenol and its by-products degradation were totally degraded by combining the spatiality of the reactor and the temporal post-discharge. A degradation mechanism was proposed and a plasmachemical reaction in relation with the pernitrous acid species was confirmed.

Evaluation of pulsed corona discharge plasma for the treatment of petroleum-contaminated soil

Petroleum hydrocarbons released to the environment caused by leakage or illegal dumping pose a threat to human health and the natural environment. In this study, the potential of a pulsed corona discharge plasma system for treating petroleum-polluted soils was evaluated. This system removed 76.93 % of the petroleum from the soil in 60 min with an energy efficiency of 0.20 mg/kJ. Furthermore, the energy and degradation efficiencies for the remediation of soil contaminated by single polyaromatic hydrocarbons, such as phenanthrene and pyrene, were also compared, and the results showed that this technology had potential in organic-polluted soil remediation. In addition, the role of water molecules was investigated for their direct involvement in the formation and transportation of active species. The increase of soil moisture to a certain extent clearly benefitted degradation efficiency. Then, treated soils were analyzed by FTIR and GC-MS for proposing the degradation mechanism of petroleum. During the plasma discharging processes, the change of functional group and the detection of small aromatic hydrocarbons indicated that the plasma active species attached petroleum hydrocarbons and degradation occurred. This technique reported herein demonstrated significant potential for the remediation of heavily petroleum-polluted soil, as well as for the treatment of organic-polluted soils.

Degradation of reactive blue 19 by needle-plate non-thermal plasma in different gas atmospheres: Kinetics and responsible active species study assisted by CFD calculations

This study investigated the degradation of a model organic compound, reactive blue (RB-19), in aqueous solution using a needle-plate non-thermal plasma (NTP) reactor, which was operated using three gas atmospheres (Ar, air, O2) at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. The relative discharge and degradation parameters, including the peak to peak applied voltage, power, ozone generation, pH, decolorization rates, energy density and the total organic carbon (TOC) reduction were analyzed to determine the various dye removal efficiencies. The decolorization rate for Ar, air and O2 were 59.9%, 49.6% and 89.8% respectively at the energy density of 100 kJ/L. The best TOC reduction was displayed by Ar with about 8.8% decrease, and 0% with O2 and air atmospheres. This phenomenon could be explained by the formation of OH• and O3 in the Ar and O2 atmospheres, which are responsible for increased mineralization and efficient decolorization. A one-dimension model was developed using software COMSOL to simulate the RB-19-ozone reaction and verify the experiments by comparing the simulated and experimental results. It was determined that ozone plays the most important role in the dye removal process, and the ozone contribution rate ranged from 0.67 to 0.82.

Cyclic olefin copolymer plasma millireactors

The novelty of this paper lies in the development of a multistep process for the manufacturing of plasma millireactors operating at atmospheric pressure. The fabrication process relies on the integration of metallic electrodes over a cyclic olefin copolymer chip by a combination of photopatterning and sputtering. The developed plasma millireactors were successfully tested by creating air discharges in the gas volume of the millichannel. A sputtered silica layer was deposited on the channel walls to provide a barrier between the plasma and the polymer in order to prevent the alteration of polymer surfaces during the plasma treatment. Interest in this process of employing plasma millireactor as a high reactive environment is demonstrated here by the degradation of a volatile organic compound (acetaldehyde) in ambient air. In this miniaturized device, we obtained a high acetaldehyde conversion (98%) for a specific input energy lower than 200 J L(-1).

Plasmacatalytic removal of lead acetate assisted by precipitation

The Gliding Arc Discharge (GAD) is an efficient non-thermal plasma technique able to degrade organic compounds dispersed in water at atmospheric pressure. The degradation of the organometallic lead acetate (PbAc) in aqueous solution was performed by two distinct plasmageneous processes: GAD and GAD/TiO2. The global oxidation of the organic matter was followed by Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) and the mineralization was determined by the Total Organic Carbon (TOC). The Pb(2+) ions released during the degradation process were measured by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS). For 2h of GAD treatment, the degradation rate of PbAc (10mM) reached 83% and for the same duration of GAD/TiO2 process ([TiO2]=1gL(-1)), it reached 93%. The release of Pb(2+) ions in the solution was respectively of 95% and 57% for GAD and GAD/TiO2 processes. The released Pb(2+) ions were removed by precipitation process in a basic medium at pH=11.1. A reaction mechanism was proposed to explain the PbAc molecule degradation and the Pb(2+) elimination.

Isolation and identification of an iopromide-degrading strain and its application in an A2/O system

An iopromide (IOPr)-degrading bacterium was isolated from activated sludge of a wastewater treatment plant in Shanghai. Based on its morphology, physiological-biochemical characteristics and a phylogenetic analysis of its 16S rRNA sequence, the bacterium was identified and named as Pseudomonas sp. I-24. The optimum condition for degrading IOPr was at 30°C and pH 7.0. After 5 days, strain I-24 could degrade 30 mg/L IOPr by 99% in a basal salts medium with a 5% (V/V) inoculum and 200 mg/L starch as the primary substrate. When applied to an Anaerobic-Anoxic/Aerobic (A2/O) process, with the coexistence of other bacteria, the strain I-24 got lower (61.3%) IOPr removal, but in two A2/O systems (with and without I-24 inoculation), the CODcr removal were both approximately 95%. The trial dosed with strain I-24 showed better IOPr removal than the un-dosed one. I-24 sustained its abundance in the A2/O system during the experiment.

KN-B removal from water by non-thermal plasma

The degradation of Reactive Black 5 (KN-B) in water using double-dielectric barrier discharge (DDBD) was studied. Experimental results showed that the KN-B degradation rate increased as the initial pH decreased. Low concentrations of Fe(2+) enhanced the degradation, whereas high concentrations of Fe(2+) hindered the degradation. The results showed that DDBD did not noticeably reduce total organic carbon but did reduce the pH value and improve the biodegradability of the solution significantly. Furthermore, the UV-Vis spectra of the dye showed that the chromophore group was damaged and that the solution was decolorized after the 10-min degradation process.

Effect of acyl donor chain length and substitutions pattern on the enzymatic acylation of flavonoids

Rutin and esculin were enzymatically acylated with different aliphatic acids as acyl donors (fatty acids, dicarboxylic acids and omega-substituted fatty acids) by an immobilized lipase from Candida antarctica. The effect of the water content and the acyl donors pattern on the flavonoid initial acylation rate and conversion yield were investigated. The obtained results indicated that the water content of the medium has a strong effect on the performance of these reactions. The best conversion yields were reached when the water content was kept lower than 200 ppm. At low water content of the medium, these syntheses are influenced by carbon chain length and substitution pattern of the acyl donors. Higher conversion yields of esculin and rutin (>70%) were obtained with aliphatic acids having high carbon chain length (>12). Moreover, it has been found that the amine and thiol groups on omega-substituted fatty acid chain were unfavourable to these reactions. The 1H NMR and 13C NMR analyses of some synthesized esters (esculin and rutin palmitate) show that only monoesters were produced and that the esterification takes place on the primary OH of glucose moiety of the esculin and on the secondary 4"'-OH of the rhamnose residue of rutin.