Decomposition of Carbon Dioxide in the Three-Pass Flow Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma Reactor

Abstract

Carbon dioxide (CO2) as one of the green house gas emissions can be decomposed in the three-pass flow configuration of Dielectric Barrier Discharge plasma reactor. The main products were Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Oxygen (O2). This article is a result of the preliminary research which aims to observe the performance of three-pass flow Dielectric Barrier Discharge plasma reactor in utilizing CO2, mixed with CH4, to produce synthesis gas CO and H2, also known as synthesis gas. This research was conducted using three types of reactors lengths, which are 36, 24 and 12 cm (Re1, Re2 and Re3), to observe the possibility of CO2 decomposition performance inside the reactors in several reactor lengths. Other parameters involved in this research were feed flow rates and the reactor voltage. The CO2 flow rates were 500, 1000 and 1500 SCCM/minutes and the voltage of the reactor were 5.4; to 9.5 kV. The conversion of CO2 was increased with the increasing of reactor voltage and the longer of the reactors. The subsequent research would be conducted using CO2 and CH4 mixed feed to observe the plasma reactor performance in producing synthesis gas CO and H2 with the longer reaction time and more product composition data analysis. The best feed flow rate was 500 SCCM/minutes. The CO2 conversion reached the maximum value at the reaction time of 2.1 minute, and dropped off after that time. It is possibly caused by occurring of the reversed reaction due to the high temperature of plasma reaction. The Specific Energy (SE) was 270 kJ/mol. This value is lower compared to the previous researches, as well as to its energy bonding.