Prediction of NO to NO2 conversion efficiency with NTP-based diesel exhaust treatment using radial basis functions

Abstract

Non-thermal plasma (NTP) technique is one of the most outstanding techniques which gives superior results in reducing the concentration of NOX from diesel exhaust. However, NO to NO2 conversion reactions are predominant while NTP alone is used for exhaust treatment, with no adsorbents/catalysts. The NO to NO2 conversion efficiency depends on various electrical and physical parameters, and very few studies have been carried out to predict it with the variation in those parameters using soft computing techniques. In the present study, experiments were conducted with variations in voltage, flow rate, discharge gap width, and initial NOX concentration and observed the changes in the concentrations of NO and NO2. An approach has been made using MATLAB and radial basis functions (RBFs) to predict the NO to NO2 conversion efficiency of this particular experimental setup. Predicted values are well matched with the experimental values and as such provide strong support to use this method for such prediction problems. � Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019