[Optimizing remediation conditions of non-thermal plasma for DDTs heavily contaminated soil]

A series of experiments were carried out in a non-thermal reactor to remove DDTs in heavily contaminated soil by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD). The study aims to investigate the effects of soil properties (including soil particle size and soil water content) and equipment working parameters (e. g. the plasma power, the processing time and discharge atmosphere) on the removal of DDTs from soil. The results showed that DDTs in soil were significantly degraded by the non-thermal plasma produced by dielectric barrier discharge. Removal rate of DDTs increased with increasing processing time. The removal efficiency of DDTs ranged from 95.3% to 99.9% in 20 minutes. The optimum conditions were as follows: 1 kW of the plasma power, 20 minutes of processing time in air discharge atmosphere, 0-0.9 mm soil particle size and 4.5% -10.5% of soil moisture content. The results also showed that o,p'-DDE might be the intermediate dechlorination and dehydrogenation product of the o,p'-DDT after the oxidization.