Decomposition of methyl chloride by using an RF plasma reactor

Application of radio-frequency (RF) plasma as an alternative technology for the decomposition of methyl chloride (CH3Cl) with oxygen is demonstrated. The results of this study revealed that, in the CH3Cl/O-2/Ar plasma, the decomposition fraction of CH3Cl was over 99.99%, which occurred at the condition designed for 3% of CH3Cl feeding concentration, 1.0 of equivalence ratio (phi), 20 Torr of operation pressure, 100 seem of total gas flow rate and 100 W of input power wattage. Higher input power wattage can increase both the CH3Cl decomposition efficiency and the fraction of total-carbon input converted into [CO2 + CO], resulting in the reduction of the harmful products (COCl2) effluent concentration. However, more soot was found in the plasma reactor when the input power wattage was higher than 70 W. The species detected in the effluent gas stream included CO, CO2, H2O, HCl, CH4, C2H2, C2H4, C2H6, C2H3Cl, C2H5Cl and COCl2. The optimal mathematical models based on obtained experimental data were also developed and tested by means of the sensitivity analysis, which showed that the input power wattage (W) was the most sensitive parameter for both CH,CI decomposition and temperature elevation in the RF plasma reactor. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.