Dielectric Barrier Discharge Plasma-Assisted Catalytic CO2 Hydrogenation: Synergy of Catalyst and Plasma

CO2 hydrogenation is an effective way to convert CO2 to value-added chemicals (e.g., CH4 and CH3OH). As a thermal catalytic process, it suffers from dissatisfactory catalytic performances (low conversion/selectivity and poor stability) and high energy input. By utilizing the dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) technology, the catalyst and plasma could generate a synergy, activating the whole process in a mild condition, and enhancing the conversion efficiency of CO2 and selectivity of targeted product. In this review, a comprehensive summary of the applications of DBD plasma in catalytic CO2 hydrogenation is provided in detail. Moreover, the state-of-the-art design of the reactor and optimization of reaction parameters are discussed. Furthermore, several mechanisms based on simulations and experiments are provided. In the end, the existing challenges of this hybrid system and corresponding solutions are proposed.