Erlangen 2026 – wissenschaftliches Programm

Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Aktualisierungen | Downloads | Hilfe

P: Fachverband Plasmaphysik

P 19: Atmospheric Pressure Plasmas III

P 19.1: Vortrag

Donnerstag, 19. März 2026, 17:30–17:45, KH 01.020

Upscaling Microwave CO₂ Plasma Torches: Transitioning to 915 MHz Operation — •Marc Bresser, Katharina Wiegers, Irina Semjonov, Andreas Schulz, Matthias Walker, and Günter Tovar — IGVP, University of Stuttgart, Germany

The continuous rise in Earth’s surface temperature makes a reduction of the emission of climate gasses essential. The chemical industry, as one of the largest emitters of CO₂, must find new processes to replace fossil routes with renewable alternatives. A promising approach is to use CO₂ as a feedstock and close the carbon cycle. One innovative technology is the activation of CO₂ with an atmospheric microwave plasma torch, which produces CO and O₂. The produced CO can be used together with green hydrogen to form syngas and to be a feedstock for processes like Fischer-Tropsch. One advantage of the microwave plasma is the flexibility of power, small turn on times, and the use of the fluctuations of renewable intermittent energy sources like wind or solar. This work investigates the upscaling of CO₂ splitting with an atmospheric plasma torch from 2.45 GHz to 915 MHz. The process at 2.45 GHz was examined up to 6 kW and gas flow-rates of 74 slm. To improve conversion efficiency, the quenching of the effluent plasma was explored using a gas nozzle and different cooler positions. The cold product gas is analyzed with absorption Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and a X-Stream gas analyzer. Based on these findings, a 915 MHz plasma torch was designed and constructed. The first conversions results are presented.

Keywords: CO2 conversion; Microwave plasma torch; Carbon monoxide production