Adaptive Control for NOx Removal in Non-Thermal Plasma Processing

This paper presents results on NOx removal using a dielectric packed‐bed plasma reactor where the reactor energy is varied in real time to optimise NOx removal. An automated system has been developed using computer‐control with an industry standard software package, a multifunction DAQ card, on‐line fast FTIR spectroscopy and adaptive PID algorithms. The automatic control system has demonstrated real‐time control of plasma conditions which minimises the input energy for NO conversion for a range of input NO concentrations. The dependence of [NO]out on deposited energy density has been used to create a multidimensional response surface for NO destruction. This, in turn, has been used to create a fully validated process control model of the entire reactor‐FTIR‐adaptive PID system.