Although electrohydraulic discharge is effective for wastewater treatment,its application is restricted by water conductivity and limited to the treatment of low conductivity water. For high conductivity water treatment,water-surface discharge is the preferred choice.However. the metallic electrodes are easily corroded because of the high temperature and strong oxidative environment caused by gas phase discharge and the electrochemical reaction in water.As a result. the efficiency of the water treatment might be affected and the service life of the reactor might be shortened.In order to avoid the corrosion problem,nonmetallic electrode water-surface discharge is introduced into high conductivity water treatment in the present study.Carbon-felt and water were used as the high voltage electrode and ground electrode,respectively.A comparison of the electrical and chemical characteristics showed that nonmetallic electrode discharge maintained the discharge characteristics and enhanced the energy efficiency,and furthermore,the corrosion of metal electrodes was avoided.
Oxidation of S(IV) to S(VI) in the effluent of a flue gas desulfurization(FGD) sys- tem is very critical for industrial applications of seawater FGD. This paper reports a pulsed corona discharge oxidation process combined with a TiO2 photocatalyst to convert S(IV) to S(VI) in artificial seawater. Experimental results show that the oxidation of S(IV) in artificial seawater is enhanced in the pulsed discharge plasma process through the application of TiO2 coating electrodes. The oxidation rate of S(IV) using Ti metal as a ground electrode is about 2.0x10-4 mol. L 1. min-1, the oxidation rate using TiO2/Ti electrode prepared by annealing at 500 ~C in air is 4.5x 10-4 tool. L-a ~ min-1, an increase with a factor 2.25. The annealing temper- ature for preparing TiO2/Ti electrode has a strong effect on the oxidation of S(IV) in artificial seawater. The results of in-situ emission spectroscopic analysis show that chemically active species (i.e. hydroxyl radicals and oxygen radicals) are produced in the pulsed discharge plasma process. Compared with the traditional air oxidation process and the sole plasma-induced oxidation process, the combined application of TiO2 photocatalysts and a pulsed high-voltage electrical discharge process is useful in enhancing the energy and conversion efficiency of S(IV) for the seawater FGD system.