FGC Plasma Solutions, Inc. — Department of Energy STTR Phase I: 20d

Description

It is attractive therefore to turn Carbon dioxide (𝐶𝐶𝑂𝑂2) which is typically considered a pollutant, into a valuable industrial resource. Plasma has long been known as an attractive method of treating 𝐶𝐶𝑂𝑂2 in order to produce other industrial feedstocks such as CO. For this process to be industrially viable, plasma treatment of 𝐶𝐶𝑂𝑂2 must be improved to minimize Specific Input Energy (SIE) required to dissociate 𝐶𝐶𝑂𝑂2. In order to optimize these plasma-kinetic processes, it is necessary to precisely control the reduced electric field (E/n) as well as temperature and pressure in order to control which kinetic pathways are favored. This is difficult to do in most of the plasma discharges which have been explored (microwave, gliding arc, DBD, RF, nanosecond pulsed etc) since E/n cannot be controlled independently and is rather determined by the equilibrium between ionization and recombination rates. All of these discharges are considered self-sustained discharges in which the ionization rate from the discharge must balance out the recombination rate due to various plasma-chemical reactions. This leads to a unique value of the EEDF (electron energy distribution function) for a given set of discharge parameters. In order to tailor this EEDF to a particular kinetic pathway, a different type of discharge is necessary. This occurs in the form of a termed non-self-sustained discharge. It is also necessary to treat a large portion of process gas homogenously at moderate pressures to improve the overall interaction of the plasma with the flow and reduce the work that must be done to the gas (i.e. to reduce the pressure) as this would be manifested as an increase in the overall specific energy input. To this end, this proposal will use explore a novel method generating a large-volume non-equilibrium discharge sustained by external ionization to allow for 𝐶𝐶𝑂𝑂2 conversion efficiencies over 60%. At a high level, the goal of this work will be to a) develop a flow reactor for testing two different types of non-self-sustained discharges b) to conduct a technoeconomic analysis considering possible applications for this technology given the experimentally determined specific energy input determined in the proposed work. Scalability to large treatment volumes will be addressed. If this work is successful, it will enable the demonstration of a novel technology for 𝐶𝐶𝑂𝑂2 processing. This technology can therefore the generation of valuable feedstocks and commercially viable carbon capture and storage technologies. There are many other applications for large-volume ionization including enabling MHD power cycles as well as various plasma-assisted combustion technologies for energy, aerospace and defense.