Publication
Title
Modeling of plasma-based $CO_{2}$ conversion : lumping of the vibrational levels
Author
Abstract
 Although CO2 conversion by plasma technology is gaining increasing interest, the underlying mechanisms for an energy-efficient process are still far from understood. In this work, a reduced non-equilibrium CO2 plasma chemistry set, based on level lumping of the vibrational levels, is proposed and the reliability of this level-lumping method is tested by a self-consistent zero-dimensional code. A severe reduction of the number of equations to be solved is achieved, which is crucial to be able to model non-equilibrium CO2 plasmas by 2-dimensional models. Typical conditions of pressure and power used in a microwave plasma for CO2 conversion are investigated. Several different sets, using different numbers of lumped groups, are considered. The lumped models with 1, 2 or 3 groups are able to reproduce the gas temperature, electron density and electron temperature profiles, as calculated by the full model treating all individual excited levels, in the entire pressure range investigated. Furthermore, a 3-groups model is also able to reproduce the shape of the vibrational distribution function (VDF) and gives the most reliable prediction of the CO2 conversion. A strong influence of the vibrational excitation on the plasma characteristics is observed. Finally, the limitations of the lumped-levels method are discussed.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Plasma sources science and technology / Institute of Physics. - Bristol, 1992, currens
Publication
Bristol : Institute of Physics, 2016
ISSN
0963-0252
Volume/pages
25:4(2016), 22 p.
Article Reference
045022
ISI
000380380200036
Medium
E-only publicatie
Full text (Publishers DOI)
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UAntwerpen
 Faculty/Department Research group Publication type Subject Affiliation Publications with a UAntwerp address