Unveiling the synergism and reaction pathway of ethyl acetate removal in DBD/absorption integrated reactor

The experiment employs dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) combined with absorption integrated reactor (DCA^IR) for higher concentration ethyl acetate removal and studies the synergism of DCA^IR technology and the reaction pathway of ethyl acetate. Among three technologies of DCA^IR, DBD and DBD combined with absorption series reactor (DCA^SR), DCA^IR achieved the highest removal efficiency (RE) of ethyl acetate at similar input power. Fixed gas flow rate of 1000 ml/min and $c_{C_4{H}_8{O}_2}^{\mathrm{in}}$ of 5000 mg/m³, the average REs of DCA^SR and DCA^IR are higher than that of DBD by 31.2 % and 34.2 %, respectively. For the efficiency compensation mechanism, one of synergies in DCA^IR, RE of ethyl acetate could exceed 80 % at the input power of 15 W. Energy consumption evaluation shows when RE > 80 %, the max energy efficiency of three technologies is in the order 70.0 g/kWh (DCA^IR) > 5.1 g/kWh (DCA^SR) > 3.0 g/kWh (DBD). Tail gas and absorbent analysis reveals DCA^IR can enhance mineralizing ethyl acetate and eliminating the secondary pollutants (e.g., O₃, gaseous organic intermediates, and COD, etc.) effectively, due to its special structure of reactor. According to FT-IR spectra, the degradation mechanism and reaction pathway of ethyl acetate in DCA^IR has been unveiled.