Plasma Discharge in Water and Its Application for Industrial Cooling Water Treatment
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Plasma Discharge in Water and Its Application for Industrial Cooling Water Treatment A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Drexel University by Yong Yang In partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2011 ii © Copyright 2008 Yong Yang. All Rights Reserved. iii Acknowledgements I would like to express my greatest gratitude to both my advisers Prof. Young I. Cho and Prof. Alexander Fridman. Their help, support and guidance were appreciated throughout my graduate studies. Their experience and expertise made my five year at Drexel successful and enjoyable. I would like to convey my deep appreciation to the most dedicated Dr. Alexander Gutsol and Dr. Andrey Starikovskiy, with whom I had pleasure to work with on all these projects. I feel thankful for allowing me to walk into their office any time, even during their busiest hours, and I’m always amazed at the width and depth of their knowledge in plasma physics. Also I would like to thank Profs. Ying Sun, Gary Friedman, and Alexander Rabinovich for their valuable advice on this thesis as committee members. I am thankful for the financial support that I received during my graduate study, especially from the DOE grants DE-FC26-06NT42724 and DE-NT0005308, the Drexel Dean’s Fellowship, George Hill Fellowship, and the support from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics. I would like to thank the friendship and help from the friends and colleagues at Drexel Plasma Institute over the years. Special thanks to Hyoungsup Kim and Jin Mu Jung. Without their help I would not be able to finish the fouling experiments alone. Finally I wish to express my gratitude to my family. Without their love, support, encouragement and understanding all these years, this doctoral thesis would not have been possible. iv Table of Contents List of Tables………………………………………………………………………...vii List of Figures……………………………………………………………………….viii Abstract……………………………………………………………………………...xvi Chapter 1. Introduction to Plasma in Water…………………………………………..1 1.1. Needs for Plasma Water Treatment………………………………………1 1.1.1. Cooling Water Management…………………………………..1 1.1.2. Water Sterilization…………………………………………….4 1.2. Previous Studies on the Plasma Water Treatment………………………..5 1.3. Process of Conventional Electrical Breakdown in Water……………….10 Chapter 2. Underwater Plasma Sources……………………………………………...18 2.1. Direct Discharges in Liquid……………………………………………..18 2.2. Bubble Discharges in Liquid……………………………………………23 Chapter 3. Dynamics of Non-Equilibrium Plasma on Liquid Water………………...27 3.1. Plasma Diagnostic Platform……………………………………………..27 3.2. Imaging of Plasma Initiation in Nanosecond Time Regime…………….29 3.3. Imaging of Plasma Initiation in Sub-nanosecond Time Regime………..31 Chapter 4. Analysis of Microsecond Streamer Propagation………………………...34 4.1. Electrostatic Model……………………………………………………...35 4.2. Thermal Model…………………………………………………………..44 v 4.3. Stability Analysis………………………………………………………..51 4.3.1. Electrostatic Pressure………………………………………...53 4.3.2. Surface Tension……………………………………………...54 4.3.3. Hydrodynamic Pressure……………………………………..54 Chapter 5. Application of Spark Discharge for Scale Removal on Filter Membranes……………………………………………………………….60 5.1. Spark Discharge System………………………………………………...61 5.2. Results and Discussions…………………………………………………66 Chapter 6. Plasma-Assisted Calcium Carbonate Precipitation………………………73 6.1. Experiment Setup……………………………………………………….74 6.1.1. Water preparation……………………………………………75 6.1.2. Pulsed Spark Discharge Generation System…………………76 6.1.3. Water Treatment……………………………………………..79 6.2. Calcium Carbonate Precipitation Results……………………………….80 6.2.1. Effect of Immediate Plasma Exposure……………………….80 6.2.2. Effect of Spray Circulation…………………………………..90 6.3. Calcium Carbonate Precipitation Mechanism Study……………………92 6.3.1. Discussions of Possible Mechanisms………………………...92 6.3.2. Effect of UV Radiation……………………………………..101 6.3.3. Effect of Reactive Species………………………………….102 6.3.4. Effect of Micro-heating…………………………………….104 6.3.5. Non-thermal Effect of Plasma……………………………...109 vi 6.3.6. Further Discussions…………………………………………112 Chapter 7. Application for Mineral Fouling Mitigation in Heat Exchangers………116 7.1. Mineral Fouling System………………………………………………..118 7.1.1. Heat Transfer Fouling Tests………………………………...118 7.1.2. Pulsed Spark Discharge Generation System………………..122 7.1.3. Artificial Hard Water……………………………………….123 7.2. Results and Discussion………………………………………………...125 7.2.1. Cycle of Concentration (COC)……………………………..125 7.2.2. Fouling Resistance………………………………………….126 7.2.3. Scanning Electron Microscope Images……………………..135 7.2.4. X-Ray Diffraction Tests…………………………………….136 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………..138 VITA……………………………………………………………………………….153 vii List of Tables Table 1. Summary of the characteristics of pulsed corona, pulsed arc and pulsed spark discharge in water…………………………………………………………...13 Table 2. Oxidation potential of active species produced by plasma in water………..14 Table 3. Chemical compositions of water samples collected in the laboratory cooling tower………………………………………………………………………...75 Table 4. Results obtained by laser particle counting………………………………...88 Table 5. Thermochemical data of Reactions 1, 2 and 3……………………………...94 Table 6. Amount of CaCl2 and NaHCO3 used in artificial hard water……………..123 viii List of Figures Figure 1. US freshwater withdrawal (2000). Source: USGS, Estimated use of water in the United States in 2000, USGS Circular 1268, March 2004……………………..1 Figure 2. Average daily national freshwater consumption for thermoelectric power generation 2005-2030 (predicted). Source: DOE/Office of Fossil Energy's Energy & Water R&D Program. 2008…………………………………………………………...2 Figure 3. US freshwater consumption (1995). Source: USGS, Estimated use of water in the United States in 1995, USGS Circular 1220, 1998……………………………..4 Figure 4. Images of plasma discharge in water: (a) pulsed corona; (b) pulsed arc produced at Drexel Plasma Institute…………………………………………………11 Figure 5. Schematics of electrode geometries used for plasma discharges in liquid: (a) single point-to-plane; (b) multiple points-to-plane; (c) point-to-point; (d)pin hole; (e) wire-to-cylinder; (f) disk electrode; (g) composite electrode with porous ceramic layer…………………………………………………………………………………..19 Figure 6. Images of plasma discharges through a pinhole: (a) pulsed corona; (b) pulsed arc produced at Drexel Plasma Institute……………………………………...20 Figure 7. Time integrated image of discharges generated using a wire-cylinder geometry in water, where tungsten wire and stainless steel mesh cylinder were used. Chamber dimensions: 44-mm ID, 100-mm length…………………………………..21 Figure 8. Pulsed multichannel discharge array in water generated by two stainless steel disk electrodes separated by a dielectric layer………………………………….22 ix Figure 9. Multichannel pulsed electrical discharge in water generated using porous- ceramic-coated metallic electrodes…………………………………………………..23 Figure 10. Schematics of electrode geometries for bubble discharge: (a) point-to- plane; (b) parallel plate; (c) gas channel with liquid wall; (d) RF bubble discharge; (e) microwave bubble discharge…………………………………………………...…….26 Figure 11. Voltage waveform produced from the nanosecond-duration power supply ………………………………………………………………………..………28 Figure 12. Voltage waveform produced from the subnanosecond-duration power supply………………………………………………………………………………...28 Figure 13. Schematic diagram of the experiment setup……………………………...29 Figure 14. Image of a nanosecond-duration discharge in water taken at a camera gate of 100 μs……………………………………………………………………………..29 Figure 15. Images showing the dynamics of nanosecond-duration discharge emission and high-voltage potential on electrode. Images were taken at a camera gate of 1 ns……………………………………………………………………………………..30 Figure 16. Images showing the dynamics of nanosecond-duration discharge emission and high-voltage potential on electrode taken at a camera gate of 0.5 ns…………..32 Figure 17. Subnanosecond-duration discharge development for different voltages…32 Figure 18. Initiations of (a) bubble formation and (b) cylindrical filament formation in water………………………………………………………………………………….36 x Figure 19. Force balance for the electrostatic model………………………………...41 Figure 20. Variations of filament radius as a function of applied voltage and inter- electrode distance…………………………………………………………………….43 Figure 21. Variations of Mach number of streamer as a function of applied voltage and inter-electrode distance………………………………………………………….44 Figure 22. Force balance for the thermal model……………………………………..46 Figure 23. Variations of filament radius as a function of applied voltage and inter- electrode distance…………………………………………………………………….49 Figure 24. Variations of the Mach number of streamer as a function of applied voltage and inter-electrode distance………………………………………………….50 Figure 25. Schematic diagram of disturbance at the surface of filament…………….51 Figure 26. Instability growth rate ω at low applied voltages. k and ω are 3 1/2 nondimensionalized using streamer radius r0 and time scale t = (ρr0 /γ) …………56 Figure 27. Instability growth rate ω at high applied voltages. k and ω are nondimensionalized as in Figure 26…………………………………………………57 Figure 28. Schematic diagram of the testing loop…………………………………...62 Figure 29. Schematic diagram of a pulsed power system……………………………64 Figure 30. Typical voltage and current waveforms of a pulsed discharge in water…64 xi Figure 31. Changes in pressure drop at three different flow rates with an artificially hardened water……………………………………………………………………….66 Figure 32. Variations