Enhanced removal of organics using activated carbon coupled with atmospheric plasma system

The growing need for sustainable wastewater treatment methods has led to increasing interest in advanced oxidation technologies. Non-Thermal Atmospheric Plasma (NTP) has been introduced as a promising alternative to conventional biological and chemical processes, capable of degrading organic pollutants in landfill leachate without requiring additional chemical reagents. Plasma technology often faces limitations such as high energy demand and radical diffusion constraints when treating complex wastewater matrices. Integrating activated carbon into the process enhances the degradation kinetics by adsorbing organic contaminants and facilitates the catalytic decomposition of generated oxidants on the carbon surface. This thesis investigates the impact of coupling Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) with a Surface Dielectric Barrier Discharge (SDBD) reactor operated at a constant power of 50 W, with the goal of identifying the influence of carbon dosage (10, 20, 30 g/L), treatment time (0.5, 1, 2 h) and disposition of the activated carbon in water (packed vs suspended). Performance indicator was evaluated by measuring residual COD and removal percentages across different operating conditions. Monitoring these parameters over time allowed for a direct comparison between the different scenarios to be done. This evaluation helped identifying the degradation kinetics and determining how the integration of the activated carbon influences the overall treatment performance. This study provides valuable insights into the scalability and application of plasma technologies for sustainable wastewater remediations.