Air Pollution Control of Trace Contaminants Using Electron Beam Irradiation

grantor: University of TorontoThis thesis introduces a new approach for the control of air pollutant emissions. This technique uses electron beam radiation and ammonia (NH 3) injection to simultaneously oxidize organic pollutants and reduce nitrogen oxide (NO). The objective of this research is to develop a numerical chemical kinetic model to evaluate this technique's effectiveness. Benzene (C6H 6) and ethyl chloride (C2ClH5) were selected as candidate pollutants representing aromatic and chlorinated hydrocarbons, respectively The model is built upon reaction mechanisms for benzene, ethyl chloride, nitric oxide and electron beam. The destruction efficiency of the contaminants was evaluated as a function of temperature, residence time, beam dose and initial concentration. Pollutant reduction effectiveness was evaluated over a wide range of conditions, entailing the execution of the following operations: the model was run for a range of temperatures between 500 and 1500K, residence times from 0.01 to 0.4 sec and dose rates between 0.01 and 1000 kGy/s. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)M.A.Sc