A sidestream located hyper-plasma reactor having an axially discrete pattern
of
alternating regions of active and passive electric field along the axial direction.
The hyper-plasma reactor has great efficacy in terms of ultra low power consumption
and copious production of NOx converting aldehydes in the absence of
NO by applying plasma power only to an air and hydrocarbon mix sidestream gas flow.
Only a small fraction (1% to 2%) of plasma power is required as compared to that
for a conventional plasma reactor to treat the full exhaust gas stream. The hyper-plasma
reactor produces ozone which reacts subsequently with hydrocarbons to produce aldehydes
("ozonolysis"). The sidestream location of the hyper-plasma reactor allows for
the full exhaust stream to bypass it, without significantly affecting the overall
NOx conversion performance in the catalytic converter.
