Optimizing a Prototype Plasma Catalytic Process for Carbon Dioxide Reduction

Abstract

Abstract The transport sector is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions, with cars and factories being major sources of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions.Four experimental factors such as temperature, gas flow rate, catalyst charge and plasma power were taken into account to optimize the experimental factors for a large value of CO 2 conversion rate. In our study, we chose the complete factorial model by design of experiments, 16 experiments (4*4). CO 2 conversion rate is clearly influenced by temperature, followed bygas flow rate after catalyst charge and finally plasma power. The percentage contribution of temperature, gas flow rate, catalyst charge and plasma power on the CO 2 conversion rate was 94.96%, 2.65%, 1.74%, 0.66% respectively. The optimal balance of factors for a high CO2 conversion rate value was plasma power (5000W), temperature (1000°C), gas flow rate (100 l/s) and catalyst charge (10%). The results of this article may encourage manufacturers to adopt this new technology to reduce CO 2 emissions from factories and cars.