A water cooled, high power, dielectric barrier discharge reactor for CO2 plasma dissociation and valorization studies

Aiming at the energy efficient use and valorization of carbon dioxide in the framework of decarbonization studies and hydrogen research, a novel dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor has been designed, constructed and developed. This test rig with water cooled electrodes is capable of a plasma power tunable in a wide range from 20W to 2 kW per unit. The reactor was designed to be ready for catalysts and membrane integration aiming at a broad range plasma conditions and processes, including low to moderate high pressures (0.05–2 bar). In this paper, preliminary studies on the highly endothermic dissociation of CO2, into O2 and CO, in a pure, inert, and noble gas mixture flow are presented. These initial experiments were performed in a geometry with a 3 mm plasma gap in a chamber volume of 40cm3, where the process pressure was varied from few 200 mbar to 1 bar, using pure CO2, and diluted in N2. Initial results confirmed the well-known trade-off between conversion rate (up to 60%) and energy efficiency (up to 35%) into the dissociation products, as measured downstream of the reactor system. Improving conversion rate, energy efficiency and the trade-off curve can be further accomplished by tuning the plasma operating parameters (e.g. the gas flow and system geometry). It was found that the combination of a high-power, water-cooled plasma reactor, together with electronic and waveform diagnostic, optical emission and mass spectroscopies provides a convenient experimental framework for studies on the chemical storage of fast electric power transients and surges.