Plasma-assisted CO₂ conversion in a gliding arc discharge: Improving performance by optimizing the reactor design

Li, Li, Zhang, Hao, Li, Xiaodong, Kong, Xiangzhi, Xu, Ruiyang, Tay, Kangrou and Tu, Xin ORCID: 0000-0002-6376-0897 (2019) Plasma-assisted CO₂ conversion in a gliding arc discharge: Improving performance by optimizing the reactor design. JOURNAL OF CO2 UTILIZATION, 29. pp. 296-303.

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Abstract

In this paper, a gliding arc discharge (GAD) is investigated for CO 2 decomposition, with particular efforts directed toward improving the performance by optimizing the reactor design. The effects of various parameters, e.g., gas flow rate, configuration of the injector nozzle, and structure of the quartz cover, on the CO 2 conversion and energy efficiency are investigated. The results indicate that the variation profiles of CO 2 conversion upon rising flow rate can be clearly be divided into two patterns: Pattern A with outlet gas temperature > 440 °C and Pattern B with outlet gas temperature < 440 °C. The CO 2 conversion rises in Pattern A but decreases in Pattern B with the increase in flow rate. The relatively high temperature in Pattern A is negatively correlated with CO 2 conversion because it can stimulate the recombination of CO and O, which leads to the increase in CO 2 conversion with increasing flow rate (and decreasing gas temperature). A smaller injector nozzle diameter (1.0 mm) exhibits a better performance in terms of both CO 2 conversion and energy efficiency under most of the conditions studied, and a longer distance between the injector nozzle and electrodes is beneficial to the CO 2 conversion at relatively high flow rates (≥ 4 L/min). A quadrangular reactor cover was proved to have a better space utilization and a higher fraction of gas treatment by plasma, which can ensure a more adequate contact between the injected gas and plasma, and thus a better performance. The optimum conditions are: flow rate = 3 L/min, nozzle diameter = 1.0 mm, distance between injector nozzle and electrodes = 5.0 mm, and a quadrangular cover, under which CO 2 conversion and energy efficiency up to 11.1% and 20.7% can be achieved. Compared to other typical non-thermal plasmas, such as dielectric barrier discharge and corona discharge, GAD shows a significantly higher energy efficiency along with a flow rate that is an order of magnitude higher.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	CO2 decomposition, Gliding arc discharge, Flow rate, Reactor design, Gas flow field
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	21 Jan 2019 09:27
Last Modified:	11 Oct 2023 17:03
DOI:	10.1016/j.jcou.2018.12.019
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3031533