Decomposition of 1,1-Dichloroethane and 1,1-Dichloroethene in an electron beam generated plasma reactor

An electron beam generated plasma reactor is used to decompose low concentrations (100–3000 ppm) of 1,1-dichloroethane and 1,1-dichloroethene in atmospheric pressure air streams. The energy requirements for 90% and 99% decomposition of each compound are reported as a function of inlet concentration. Dichloroethene decomposition is enhanced by a chlorine radical propagated chain reaction. The chain length of the dichloroethene reaction is estimated to increase with dichloroethene concentration from 10 at 100 ppm initial dichloroethene concentration to 30 at 3000 ppm. Both the dichloroethane and dichloroethene reactions seem to be inhibited by electron scavenging decomposition products. A simple analytic expression is proposed for fitting decomposition data where inhibition effects are important and simple first order kinetics are not observed