Plasma Assisted Ammonia Synthesis in a Fluidized-Bed DBD reactor: Effect of Catalyst Particle Movement

Ammonia, a vital chemical raw material for fertilizers and crucial to human life, can be efficiently produced using clean energy through plasma catalysis technology. While the incorporation of catalysts in plasma is a burgeoning research focus, the impact of catalyst particle motion within the plasma on ammonia synthesis remains unclear. This investigation employed a fluidized-bed reactor to conduct plasma-catalyzed ammonia synthesis experiments, comparing the results with a fixed-bed reactor. Notably, the fluidized-bed reactor exhibited a significantly enhanced ammonia synthesis rate. Discharge characteristics and optical emission spectroscopy analysis revealed higher average currents and increased current pulses in the fluidized-bed reactor, leading to a substantial rise in gas-phase reactive species. These enhanced discharge characteristics correlated with elevated ammonia production in the fluidized-bed reactor. These findings contribute novel insights into the optimization of plasma-catalyzed ammonia synthesis reactors, shedding light on the influence of catalyst movement patterns.