Patent 7220396 was granted and assigned to Battelle Memorial Institute on May, 2007 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
There are disclosed various processes, apparatuses and systems for treating a halogen-containing gas such as F2 that involve generating a plasma in order to reduce chemically the halogen-containing gas into products that are more environmentally manageable. According to a particular embodiment, a reducing agent is mixed with the halogen-containing gas to produce a feed gas mixture and a non-thermal plasma is generated in the feed gas mixture in the presence of liquid water. According to another embodiment, a vaporized portion of a liquid reducing agent is mixed with the halogen-containing gas to produce a reaction mixture and a non-thermal plasma is generated in the reaction gas mixture to reduce the halogen-containing gas.