Direct decomposition of CO2 using self-cooling dielectric barrier discharge plasma

As a greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the major causes of global warming. The effective control of CO2 emission has become a major global concern. To reduce CO2 emission in the environment and to maximize the use of CO2, a self-cooling wire-cylinder dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma reactor was used to decompose CO2 at ambient conditions, and the results were compared with a common wire-cylinder DBD reactor. Results indicated that in the said plasma reactor, circulating water could obviously improve discharge efficiency through taking away heat that was generated during plasma discharge process, and a more stable and homogeneous discharge was easier to obtain. The CO2 decomposition rate was 26.1% without using any catalysts and discharge mediums or modifying electrodes, and this value was significantly higher than that in the common wire-cylinder DBD reactor (10.1% CO2 decomposition rate). Moreover, the CO2 decomposition rate could reach up to 35.8% when N-2 was added (volume ratio V-N2 : V-CO2 = 9 : 1). (C) 2017 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.