The decomposition of trichloroethylene (TCE) with a wire-in-tube pulsed corona reactor was experimentally investigated. It was found that the decomposition of TCE was higher in N-2 gas, compared to the decomposition in the gas stream containing H-2 or O-2 gas. The main gaseous products were HCl and Cl-2 for TCE decomposition in N-2 gas. With the existence of 2% H-2 in gas stream, the yield of HCl was three times higher than that in N-2 gas. When O-2 gas was added into N-2 gas stream, the main decomposition products were COCl2, CO2 and DCAC. In order to prevent the production of unwanted byproducts from TCE decomposition, a combination of plasma decomposition and in situ absorption was proposed by coating a layer of Ca(OH)(2) on the surface of the grounding electrode. It was demonstrated that the Ca(OH)(2) sorbent in the plasma reactor played an effective role as a scavenger participating in the TCE decomposition by in situ capturing of the unwanted products like HCl, therefore resulting in the increase of TCE decomposition. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.