Experimental study on temperature characteristics and energy conversion in packed bed reactor with dielectric barrier discharge

The temperature characteristics and energy conversion in packed bed reactor combined with a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma was investigated experimentally. The pellet temperatures of two types packed bed reactor, cylindrical reactor and parallel-plate reactor, was measured in conditions of various inlet voltage of DBD plasma. The relationship between pellet temperature of the packed bed and applied voltage of DBD plasma was discovered. The experimental result indicates a tendency that the pellet temperature of packed bed increases as the applied voltage of inlet plasma increases. When the voltage of inlet plasma is high enough, the pellet temperature increment decreases. Simultaneously,the packed bed temperature is sensitive to the inlet plasma energy and there is a potential application to heat exchanger. Moreover the proportion of energy consumption of plasma inputting into packed bed reactor was analyzed and calculated. The mechanisms that electrical energy of inlet plasma is transformed into heat energy in the two phases, gaseous and pellets of the packed bed reactor are different. The energy consumption in pellet phase is dielectric polarization loss and depends on packed bed geometry and DBD plasma etc. The energy consumption in gaseous phase is plasma sheath procedure. The important factors effecting on gas discharge are gaseous component and voltage, frequency of power.