Destruction of volatile organic compounds used in a semiconductor industry by a capillary tube discharge reactor

Nonthermal plasma technologies offer an innovative approach to the problem of decomposing various volatile organic compounds (VOC's). We focused on de capillary tube discharge plasma reactors to study the decomposition/destruction efficiency for toluene, EGM, trichloroethane, and trichlroethylene at 50-2300-ppm levels in dry air. The effects of gas flow rate, VOC concentration, and reactor operating conditions on decomposition and analysis of reactant conversion for each VOC were investigated, The results show that VOC destruction efficiency as high as 90% can be achieved, even under a short residence time (3.8 ms),vith a destruction energy efficiency of up to 95 g (VOC)/kWh. Laboratory-scale plasma technology was successfully demonstrated for its potential application for VOC control in the semiconductor clean-room environment.