Plug flow reactor model of the plasma chemical conversion of CO2

Abstract

A 1D plug flow model suitable for describing the CO2 conversion into CO in microwave plasma reactors is proposed. The model is applied together with the Antwerp data set for the CO2 reaction kinetics to calculate parameter scans for a realistic experimental set up. The energy re-distribution pathways in the model calculations are analyzed. The analysis shows that despite the input power being initially deposited mainly into vibrational states the fast vibrational-translational (VT) transfer leads to dissociation of CO2 predominantly via the thermal quenching mechanism. Solutions with mitigated VT-losses can be obtained by increasing the specific input power-power per unit volume. In this regime the energy efficiency starts to be constrained by reverse processes.