Effect of dielectric packing materials on the decomposition of carbon dioxide using DBD microplasma reactor

Abstract

Carbon dioxide (CO2) decomposition was performed at a normal atmosphere and room temperature in dielectric barrier discharge microplasma reactors to reduce CO2 emissions and convert CO2 into valuable chemical materials. The outlet gases, including CO2, CO, and O2, were analyzed with gas chromatography. The results indicated that the conversions of CO2 in dielectric material‐packed reactors were all higher than that in nonpacked reactors. Particle size, dielectric constant, particle morphology, and acid‐base properties of the dielectric materials (including quartz wool, quartz sand, γ‐Al2O3, MgO, and CaO) all affected the CO2 decomposition process. The conversion of CO2 and energy efficiency achieved the highest values of 41.9 and 7.1% in a CaO‐packed reactor for the higher dielectric constant and basicity of CaO. Quartz wool was also an excellent dielectric packing material because its fiber structure provided rigid sharp edges. © 2014 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 61: 898–903, 2015

Influence of Gap Size and Dielectric Constant of the Packing Material on the Plasma Behaviour in a Packed Bed DBD Reactor: A Fluid Modelling Study

“…Currently, we are performing experiments to investigate the CO 2 dissociation in both a mm‐gap and microgap reactor for different packing materials, and the first preliminary results seem to indicate similar trends. However, the different packing materials in the experiments do not only have different dielectric constants, but they might also have other characteristics, like the morphology, porosity and chemical activity (acid‐base properties), etc, which can also affect the outcome . Hence, this shows the added value of modelling, where the effect of one separate parameter, i.e.…”

“…In principle, a better comparison can only be made when the same packing material is used in both a microgap and mm-gap reactor. For g-Al 2 O 3 , the maximum obtained CO 2 conversion reported for a microgap reactor is 16.3%, with an energy efficiency of 4.5%, [20] while in a mm-gap reactor, a comparable conversion of 16.0% could only be reached with a somewhat lower energy efficiency of 3.8%. [8] A plasma is called a microplasma when it is confined to critical dimensions below approximately 1 mm.…”

“…However, the different packing materials in the experiments do not only have different dielectric constants, but they might also have other characteristics, like the morphology, porosity and chemical activity (acid-base properties), etc, which can also affect the outcome. [8,20] Hence, this shows the added value of modelling, where the effect of one separate parameter, i.e. here the dielectric constant, can be investigated.…”

“…In addition, we study the influence of the gas gap size on the dielectric packing effect, by comparing a normal mm‐gap and a so‐called microgap. Indeed, it has been suggested by Duan et al that a packed bed DBD microplasma yields promising conversions and energy efficiencies for CO 2 splitting, in the same order, if not better than in a normal size reactor . The maximum achievable conversion in this microreactor setup was reported to be 41.9% for a packing of CaO, with an energy efficiency of 5.7%, while to our knowledge, the highest conversion reported in a normal size packed bed DBD reactor was very comparable, namely 42% with a zirconia packing, but the corresponding energy efficiency was slightly lower, i.e.…”

Recent Progress of Plasma-Assisted Nitrogen Fixation Research: A Review

“…The size and structure of the catalyst also influenced the plasma discharge characteristics [155][156][157]. It has been confirmed that the discharge characteristics (such as uniformity, power) can be altered differently by packing catalysts with a different physical property [158][159][160][161][162].…”