(95h) Forming Small Organic Molecules From CO2 Using a Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) Plasma

We have designed a dielectric barrier discharge plasma source to explore the use of DBDs in CO2 sequestration. DBDs operate at atmospheric pressure and employ high voltage pulses across an anode-cathode pair to create a high density, low temperature plasma. Typical commercial DBDs operate at 60 Hz, but there are significant advantages to operating DBDs at much higher frequencies. Here the goal is to accelerate electrons to energies of several eV while leaving the background gas at the inlet temperature. These energetic electrons will electronically excite CO2 molecules and act as a catalyst for CO2 breakdown into CO and O, which can be collected and used for future chemical processes. Theory suggests that this non-thermal process will be several times more efficient than thermal systems (DBD 48kJ/mol versus thermal 340kJ/mol)*. The DBD design is highly flexible allowing for easy addition of catalysts and control over pressure, electrode distances, voltages (0 kV to over 10 kV) and operating frequencies (1 Hz to over 10 kHz).

* K. Jogan, et al ?The Effect of Residence Time on the CO2 Reduction from Combustion Flue Gasses by an AC Ferroelectric Packed Bed Reactor? IEEE transactions on industry applications, VOL. 29, NO. 5, (1993)