Plasma Enhanced Selective Catalytic Reduction of NOx for Diesel Cars

The potential of dielectric barrier discharges for the reduction of NO emitted from Diesel cars has been investigated. Without additional measures the non-thermal plasma induced oxidation of NO to NO₂ is favored over reduction to N₂ and O₂. Therefore a combination of plasma and a catalyst for the selective catalytic reduction of NO with ammonia as reducing agent has been tested: An NO conversion of about 70 % was achieved at a temperature as low as 100 °C, which cannot be explained by simply adding the reduction rates obtained by plasma and by selective catalytic reduction.