Nitric oxide (NO) conversion has been studied for two different types of atmospheric-pressure pulsed-orona discharges, one generates a surface-plasma and the other provides a volume-plasma. For both types of discharges the energy cost for NO removal increases with decreasing oxygen concentration and initial concentration of NO. However, the energy cost for volume plasmas for 50% NO removal, EC(50), from air was found to be 120 eV/molecule, whereas for the surface plasma, it was only 70 eV/molecule. A smaller difference in energy cost, but a higher efficiency for removal of NO was obtained in a pure nitrogen atmosphere, where NO formation is restricted due to the lack of oxygen. For the volume plasma. EC(50) in this case was measured at 50 eV/molecule, and for the surface plasma it was 40 eV/molecule. Besides the higher NO removal efficiency of surface plasmas compared to volume plasmas, the energy efficiency of surface-plasmas was found to be almost independent of the amount of electrical energy deposited in the discharge, whereas the efficiency for volume plasmas decreases considerably with increasing energy. This indicates the possibility of operating surface plasma discharges at high energy densities and in more compact reactors than conventional volume discharges. Published by Elsevier B.V.