What is “efficiency” in plasma chemical processes?

Plasma chemical processes leverage electrical energy for chemical abatement and to rethink how fuels are made, stored, and used throughout the energy economy. These capabilities, along with the flexibility to drive reactions over distributed scales at low temperatures and pressures, offer a pathway to a sustainable circular economy where waste can be converted into value-added resources. However, the scalability and impact of these processes are constrained by the energy costs to drive reactions. Yet there is no standardized framework to evaluate the performance of these processes. Instead, current evaluation methods are ambiguous, inconsistent between sources, and often flawed. In this work, we develop a framework to evaluate the performance of plasma chemical processes that generalizes across all types of chemical reactions. By establishing standardized metrics and benchmarks, this framework aims to accelerate the development and deployment of technologies.