Postplasma Catalytic Model for NO Production: Revealing the Underlying Mechanisms to Improve the Process Efficiency

Plasma catalysis is emerging for plasma-assisted gas conversion processes. However, the underlying mechanisms of plasma catalysis are poorly understood. In this work, we present a 1D heterogeneous catalysis model with axial dispersion (i.e., accounting for back-mixing and molecular diffusion of fluid elements in the process stream in the axial direction), for plasma-catalytic NO production from N2/O2 mixtures. We investigate the concentration and reaction rates of each species formed as a function of time and position across the catalyst, in order to determine the underlying mechanisms. To obtain insights into how the performance of the process can be further improved, we also study how changes in the postplasma gas flow composition entering the catalyst bed and in the operation conditions of the catalytic stage affect the performance of NO production.