Plasma-driven direct CH4 conversion to high value-added products: experiment and modeling

Promovendus/a: Shangkun Li

Promotor(en): Prof. dr. Annemie Bogaerts, prof. Erik Neyts

The direct conversion of CH4 to value-added chemicals has attracted intensive interest from both academic and industrial communities. Plasma technology is a promising approach to activate gas molecules by electricity instead of heat, and it can be operated at mild conditions and allows easy upscaling. The combination of plasma and catalysis often shows synergy. In order to optimise this syngergistic operation, it is important to understand the plasma and plasma-catalyst interactions at a fundamental level. However, it is not straightforward to reveal the entire mechanism because of the intrinsically highly complex reactions of plasma catalysis. This thesis aims to provide a fundamental understanding of plasma-driven direct CH4 conversion into value-added products using various oxidants (i.e., O2, CO2, and H2O), involving plasma gas-phase reactions and plasma-assisted surface reactions on a catalyst by combining experiments and modeling, which could be of great interest for the application of plasma-based gas conversion at a wider scale, boosting the transition towards a more sustainable energy economy.