GlidArc · Towards a fundamental understanding of a gliding arc discharge for the purpose of greenhouse gas conversion into value-added chemicals
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2015-06-22 → 2017-06-21
- EU contribution
- €160,800
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
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Results in brief
Towards a fundamental understanding of a gliding arc discharge for the purpose of greenhouse gas conversion into value-added chemicals
The conversion of greenhouse gases to value-added chemicals is an effective strategy to reduce the emissions and an interesting process both from economic and ecological point of view. Moreover, the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into valuable compounds, i.e., so-called nitrogen fixation, is gaining increasing interest, owing to the essential role in the nitrogen cycle of the biosphere. A gliding arc (GlidArc) plasma offers unique perspectives for activating inert molecules at mild conditions and allows the gas conversion with limited energy cost. A GlidArc is, however, very complex and poorly understood. Therefore, this project intends to obtain more fundamental insight in the plasma mechanisms of the GlidArc for gas conversion, by means of extensive modeling, validated by experimental diagnostics. This project intends to unravel the fundamental processes and mechanisms of the GlidArc and give rise to unprecedented energy-efficient reaction chemistry and plasma dynamic behaviour in GlidArc assisted conversion of gases into value-added chemicals. This project is expected to provide a theoretical foundation and guidance for research and industrial applications of the GlidArc.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Global climate change due to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions is a growing concern. The conversion of greenhouse gases (mainly CO2, CH4) to value-added chemicals or renewable fuels is an effective strategy to reduce these emissions and an interesting process both from economic and ecological point of view. A gliding arc (GlidArc) plasma offers unique perspectives for activating inert molecules at mild conditions and allows the greenhouse gas conversion with limited energy cost. A GlidArc is, however, very complex and poorly understood. Therefore, this project intends to obtain more fundamental insight in the plasma-mechanisms of the GlidArc for greenhouse gas conversion, by means of extensive modeling, validated by experimental diagnostics. First, the chemical kinetics in the GlidArc for greenhouse gas conversion will be studied. Second, this plasma chemistry will be incorporated in a coupled magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) - kinetics model to study the spatial and temporal plasma properties. The model will be validated by experiments, to be carried out during the secondment. Furthermore, the effects of various operating parameters, such as the CH4/CO2 ratio, the discharge power and the gas flow rates, on the gas conversion, the yields of the formed products and on the energy efficiency will be analyzed, in order to predict which conditions give rise to the highest and most energy-efficient conversion. This project is very interdisciplinary, including chemistry, physics, chemical engineering, mathematics and computer modeling, with application in environmental science and sustainable chemistry. Definitely it will extend the applicant’s skills in plasma modeling to a much broader field, with new applications, and enhance his creative and innovative potential by advanced training in an international research environment.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITEIT ANTWERPEN · AntwerpenCoordinatorBelgium
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union