Tuning the Plasma Chemistry for Energy and Environmental Applications

For the past decades, energy and environmental applications of plasma technology have attained a lot of attention1, 2. The main focus in this area lies on reforming hydrocarbons and converting CO 2 to develop an efficient single-step ‘gas-to-liquid’ (GTL) process. Plasmas have the ability to convert gaseous hydrocarbons and CO 2 into liquid products while relying on any (renewable) source of electricity-rather than heat-and maintain a high operation(al) flexibility. These merits make it a dream technology for GTL and storing intermittent sustainable energy in chemicals and fuels3, One of the main remaining challenges is to increase the (liquid) product selectivity and yield. To overcome this issue, most research focuses on the physics and engineering side, particularly in combination with catalysts (plasma catalysis). Here we pose an underrepresented viewpoint: focusing on the plasma chemistry. We provide key insights in the underlying chemical reactions taking place in plasma processes by relying on a combination of modelling and experiments.