Removal of gaseous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from cooking fumes using an atmospheric plasma reactor

Abstract

Plasma technology is becoming increasingly important for treating various environmental pollutants. Treatment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), such as those emitted from electric ovens while roasting pork, using an atmospheric plasma reactor has seldom been studied. This study investigated the characteristics of five PAH species (acenaphthalene (AcPy), acenaphthene (Acp), anthracene (Ant), benzo[a]anthracene (BaA), and benzo(ghi)perylene (BghiP)) in fumes emitted while roasting pork. The removal efficiency at different plasma output powers (0.112, 0.138, and 0.156 kJ/m³) of the reactor was also investigated. In the experiments, cooking fumes were generated by a small electrical oven, with pork being roasted at 200 °C. After a steady state was reached, samples were collected at the inlet and outlet of the atmospheric plasma reactor. The PAHs were analyzed using gas chromatography–mass spectrophotometry. The experimental results indicated that the removal efficiency for each PAH was highest with the highest plasma reactor output power. This was also true of the total PAH concentration, but the total toxic equivalence, BaP_eq, was lowest at the medium power output. This demonstrates that the total toxicity and the removal of PAHs were not directly proportional, and careful consideration must be made by engineers when setting the treatment conditions.

Keywords:

• PAHs
• cooking fume
• pork
• atmospheric plasma reactor

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the National Science Council of the Republic of China, Taiwan, for financially supporting this research under Contract No. NSC 96-2221-E020-006-MY2.