Review of degradation technologies of abandoned electrical insulation gas sulfur hexafluoride

Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) is a kind of inert gas with strong greenhouse effect. The SF6 emitted every year in the world, especially the discarded SF6 in the power industry, is increasing and needs to be treated harmfully. SF6 is stable and extremely difficult to decompose. In this paper, the properties of SF6 were analyzed, and the common SF6 degradation technologies at home and abroad were summarized. The principle and research status of SF6 degradation by thermal catalytic degradation, non-thermal plasma degradation, photocatalytic degradation and electrochemical degradation were introduced. The degradation process and product types of SF6 were summarized and analyzed according to the degradation principles of various technologies, and the characteristics and treatment methods of the decomposition products were classified and compared. Finally, the comprehensive performance of each technology is analyzed by comparing the device characteristics, energy consumption, decomposition efficiency and product characteristics of each technology. The results show that for batch treatment of waste SF6, the thermal catalytic degradation technology has great practical value and development potential if it continues to develop from the device design and catalyst research.