Are plasmas an effective technology to fight global warming by converting CO2 into useful products?

What is it about?

In this work we present a comprehensive overview of existing and novel technologies that are trying to fight global warming by converting carbon dioxide (CO2) into useful products (chemicals and solar fuels). We show that (one of) the most promising technologies is plasma technology. First, we explain why converting CO2 into chemicals and solar fuels using renewable energy is such a good idea and that this can be done using either pure CO2 or using a combination of CO2 and a co-reactant, such as CH4, H2 or H2O. Next, we provide an overview of all the existing and novel technologies, with their pros and cons. Finally, we gathered all the data on low temperature plasma technology used to for the conversion of CO2 and show that of all technologies, plasma technology is the most promising one for this application.

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Why is it important?

This review compares most of the technologies being researched for the conversion of CO2 into chemicals and fuels, providing their pros and cons. This comparison highlights that, despite not having gained much attention yet, plasma technology is one of the most promising technologies for this application. This is especially true in a future which will rely heavily on renewable energy, since in that case plasma technology can be used to store this intermittent renewable energy into chemicals.

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