Water purification using pulsed streamer discharges in micro-bubbled water

Industrial applications using pulsed power have been developed in many fields. One of them is the water purification using the pulsed streamer discharges. The pulsed streamer discharges in liquids generate intense electric fields at the tip of streamers, as well as high energy electrons, ozone, other chemically radical species, ultraviolet rays and shock waves. All of these may be utilized to decompose molecules and materials and to sterilize microorganism. In this time, the large-volume streamer discharges in indigo solution with oxygen micro-bubbles were used to decolorization of indigo molecules. The Blumlein type pulse forming network (B-PFN) which has maximum output voltage of 150 kV and pulse duration in the range of 0.6 to 1.2 μs was used as a pulsed power source. The decolorization ratio of indigo solution at fixed pulse repetition rates is higher with oxygen micro-bubbles, and increased with increasing pulse width and increasing the temperature of solution