The increase in energy demand, the consumption of fossil fuels, and the resulting increase inCO2 emissions requires stronger new carbon capture, storage, and consumption technologies, known as Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS). Among these CCUS we can find various CO2 transformation technologies such as hydrogenation, electrocatalysis, thermocatalysis, and plasma reaction technologies. Plasma reactors allow the transformation of CO2, a highly thermodynamically stable component, into high value-added products such as CO, thus contributing to the reduction of environmental emissions. In fact, a non-thermal plasma reactor is capable of ionizing carbon dioxide at ambient pressures and temperatures.
Dr Cristina Mas Peiró recently defended her doctoral thesis at IQS, in which she conducted an in-depth computational study of the case of a reactor for the conversion of carbon dioxide into non-thermal plasma based on a combined approach that integrates the analysis of thermodynamic, fluid-dynamic, and plasma properties.
Within this context, Dr Cristina Mas Peiró recently conducted her doctoral thesis in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the IQS School of Engineering, entitled Thermodynamic, Fluid Dynamic, and Plasma Study of Gas Mixtures in a Non-Thermal Plasma Conversion Reactor. Her thesis was jointly supervised by Dr Oriol Pou Ibar, professor and researcher with the Environmental Processes Engineering and Simulation Group (GESPA), and Dr Felix Llovell Ferret, professor of Chemical Engineering at Rovira i Virgili University (URV) and director of the URV Chair on CO2 Capture and Use.
The objective of this doctoral thesis has been the computational study of a specific case of a reactor for the conversion of carbon dioxide into a non-thermal plasma (NTP) generated in a dielectric barrier discharge reactor with argon as the diluent gas. The combined approach in this thesis integrates thermodynamic, fluid-dynamic, and plasma considerations, along with available experimental laboratory data, thus completing an in-depth study in these three very different and complex areas of knowledge.
A study using three computing technologies
To carry out her research, Dr Mas Peiró designed and built an NTP conversion system to study different models of the plasma system, first employing a thermodynamic study using the polar equation soft-SAFT EoS, which allows the behaviour of the gas mixtures involved to be characterized. In addition to CO2, carbon monoxide (CO), oxygen (O2), nitrogen (N2), argon (Ar), and hydrogen (H2) are also involved in this NTP system. Through this equation, liquid-vapor equilibrium values and other properties of the mixtures could be predicted, showing solid consistency with the experimental data and establishing the foundations for conducting other simulations.
Regarding the fluid-dynamic study, Dr Mas Peiró optimized the flow of species within the plasma reactor, using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) through analysis with SolidWorks® Flow Simulation, determining the variables that most significantly affect the performance of the plasma reactor such as average speed and vorticity.
Finally, the plasma study was carried out by introducing the plasma equations that occur inside the reactor using COMSOL® Multiphysics, defining the model with a study of pure argon chemistry in 1D and 2D geometries, and both cases found that the model showed an adequate interpretation of plasma physics.
The combination of the computational simulations carried out by Dr Mas Peiró has facilitated a complete understanding of the behaviour of the non-thermal plasma reactor and, together with the experimental validation, has been able to explore the impact of various factors on plasma generation, providing answers for future experimental tests and design optimizations.
Related publications
Mas-Peiró, C. et al, 2024, Fluid Modeling of a Non-Thermal Plasma with Dielectric Barrier Discharge and Argon as a Diluent Gas. Processes 2024, 12, 1405.
Mas-Peiró, et al, 2024, Computational Fluid Dynamic study of gas mixtures in a NON-Thermal Plasma reactor for CO2 conversion with Argon as diluent gas, Afinidad Journal of Chemical Engineering Theoretical and Applied Chemistry, 2024, 81, 601.
Mas-Peiró C. et al, 2023, Thermodynamic Characterization of Gas Mixtures for Non-thermal Plasma CO2 Conversion Applications with Soft-SAFT, J. Chem. Eng. Data, 2023, 68, 6, 1376-1387.
Mas-Peiró C. et al, 2023, Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) study of gas mixtures in a Non-Thermal Plasma for CO2 conversion, Conference at15th Mediterranean Congress of Chemical Engineering (MeCCE-15).
Mas-Peiró C. et al, 2023, Simulation of a Non-Thermal Plasma Reactor with Dielectric Barrier Discharge for CO2 Conversion. Proceedings of the COMSOL Conference Munich 2023, Munich, Germany, (25–27 October 2023).
Mas-Peiró C. et al, 2020, Thermodynamic characterization of gas mixtures for CCUS applications, Conference at14th Mediterranean Congress of Chemical Engineering (MeCCE-14), 2020.
This thesis has been conducted within the framework of the STOF-F-GAS project (PID2019-108014RB-C21), funded within the State R&D&i Programme aimed at the challenges of the Society under the National Plan of the Ministry of Science and Innovation – State Research Agency.
COLLABORATORS
