Abhishek Kumar, Sandip Gangil and Vinod Kumar Bhargav
Abstract
The cold plasma reactor was fabricated and was used for the treatment of different lignocellulosic materials such as rice straw. The operating conditions of plasma were determined under the present study, the independent parameters being the DC plasma voltage, electrode gap and reactor pressure (vacuum), whereas the dependent parameters were the plasma temperature and time. The three levels of plasma temperatures obtained and residence times selected were 110, 117 and 128 and 30, 60 and 120 min, respectively. The increase in plasma voltage resulted in increase of plasma temperature whereas reduction in electrode gap increased the plasma temperature. The above obtained parameters will be used for the treatment of lignocellulosic materials and would be environment friendly and non-toxic in nature.