Study of electric field distribution on plasma and plasma catalysis reactor for different electrode configurations and pellet sizes

In various non thermal plasma based applications, the dynamics of electric fields and charged particle interactions are crucial. In order to find an efficient plasma reactor, the effects of different electrode configurations for the plasma approach and pellet packaging & optimal sizing for the plasma catalysis approach were studied for 6 different types of volume discharge and surface discharge reactor using COMSOL Multiphysics 6.0. The different electrode configurations viz. concentric cylindrical, square and helical as volume discharged reactors and floating & 2 types of non-floating electrodes as surface discharge reactors are considered. The effect of different size (diameter 1/3/5 mm) of pellets were studied for helical and cylindrical plasma reactors for plasma catalysis. The simulated results were then experimentally verified and validated for production of ozone and the conversion or reduction of NOx from diesel exhaust.