Z. A. Zakletskii, I. V. Moryakov
Abstract This paper describes and studies a new plasma method for recycling industrial waste, such as metal shavings, using a high-voltage discharge in a liquid. The method is based on the breakdown of metal granule contacts by applying a high voltage with an amplitude of 20 kV, a microsecond duration, and a pulse repetition rate of 50 Hz. The dependence of the energy input in the discharge on the conductivity of water and an aqueous NaCl salt solution was determined in the range from 0.1 to 11 mS/cm. The time stage of the discharge with an average energy of 0.03 J responsible for the erosion of metal grains was determined. The erosion rate of iron shavings was 80 mg/min with an efficiency of 1.3 GJ/t on average for all liquid conductivity cases.