Herein, CO2 conversion is conducted in a newly developed swirl flow–induced rotating glow discharge reactor. The swirl injector is designed to produce forward vortex by eight inclined guided vanes. A glow‐type rotating discharge is formed between two electrodes of constant height. The discharge and fluid dynamics studies reveal that the magnitude of tangential velocity and secondary vortex formation affects the rotational frequency of the discharge. It is also found that the anchoring point of the plasma column root is greatly influenced by the increased pressure gradient, especially in the turbulent regime. The conversion of CO2 as a function of flow rate is found to increase in the laminar regime and decrease in the turbulent regime. With increasing specific energy input from 0.25 to 3.4 kJ L−1, there is a rise in conversion from 1.2% to 4.6%, which indicates the high residence time and high energy deposition to lesser number of CO2 molecules. Higher energy efficiencies (54.9–63.7%) at turbulent flow rates show that this swirl design enhances the distribution of electron energy to incoming fresh molecules by formation of circulation zones and turbulence.

In this study, a novel swirl-induced point−plane discharge reactor is developed for direct conversion of methane to hydrogen and solid carbon. The plasma column formed in the central hub of the swirl electrode exhibited enhanced energy transfer to methane molecules as a result of the formation of a central recirculation zone. The effects of the flow rate on high-frequency−high-voltage discharges were investigated. The yield of the major gaseous product, hydrogen, was 16%, and hydrocarbons, like acetylene and ethane, were also detected as minor byproducts. The selectivity to hydrogen was 84%, and the highest methane conversion of 19.7% was achieved at a flow rate of 0.5 L/min and input power of ∼55 W. Using thermographic analysis, the maximum operating temperature in the discharge regime was found to be 130 °C, which appears to be an added advantage of reduced energy usage on external cooling methods. The morphology of solid carbon formed on the quartz wall was characterized using electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, which suggested irregular aggregated structures of high-purity carbon (∼96%). Thermogravimetric analysis showed high thermal stability of carbon. In terms of conversion, energy yield and solid carbon purity, this reactor design presents a promising approach for carbon-neutral hydrogen production from methane.

A novel concept of swirl flow–induced rotating glow discharge for converting carbon dioxide from industrial flue gas to valuable carbon monoxide and oxygen is developed. Maximum energy efficiency of 64 % is recorded in the turbulent flow regime due to the formation of central toroidal recirculation zones. More details can be found in article number http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/ente.202000535 by Bharathi Raja, Ramanujam Sarathi, and Ravikrishnan Vinu.

This paper reports the development of a public transport trip planner to help the urban traveller in planning and preparing for his commute using public transportation in the city. A Genetic Algorithm (GA) approach that handles real-time Global Positioning Systems (GPS) data from buses of the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) in Chennai City (India) has been used to develop the planner. The GA has been shown to provide good solutions within the problem’s computation time constraints. The developed trip planner has been implemented for static network data first and subsequently extended to use real-time data. The “walk mode” and Chennai Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) have also been included in the geospatial database to extend the route-planner’s capabilities. The algorithm has subsequently been segmented to speed up the prediction process. In addition, a temporal cache has also been introduced during implementation, to handle multiple queries generated simultaneously. The results showed that there is promise for scalability and citywide implementation for the proposed real-time route-planner. The uncertainty and poor service quality perceived with public transport bus services in India could potentially be mitigated by further developments in the route-planner introduced in this paper.

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