CO2 dissociation in a microwave plasma torch: efficiency evaluation and comparison with other plasma sources*

The idea of re-using CO2 and transforming it into valuable chemicals has been gaining increasing interest in recent years.  Plasma-assisted CO2 dissociation offers one possible solution to this problem. In this contribution, we report on the results from a 2-dimensional computational investigation of the CO2 conversion to CO and oxygen in an atmospheric pressure microwave (MW) plasma torch device. The mixtures of CO2 with Ar and other gases are considered. The parameters that are varied is MW power, CO2 and CO2/Ar flow rates. The optimal operation conditions for CO2 dissociation as a function of these and other parameters  are investigated. The achieved energy efficiency is evaluated and compared with available information for other plasma sources. In this study, the two-dimensional nonPDPSIM modeling platform was used which was developed in the group of Prof. Mark J. Kushner (University of Michigan).