Advancing in-situ resource utilization for earth and space applications through plasma CO2 catalysis

Abstract

Catalysis has optimized and improved production rates in many industrial processes. Conventional catalysis plays a key role in the mass-production of otherwise difficult to obtain substances. Plasma catalysis, plasma incorporation to appropriate catalysts, has been shown in literature to further outperform the typical conventional methods, and has shown potential to become a key production method in deep space exploration and survival. However, it faces a few more challenges that hinder it from being used industrially. In this review, we discuss known mechanisms in literature and the instrumentation and diagnostics that were utilized to be able to determine and explain these mechanisms in detail, and thus have led to the development of plasma catalysts with up to 80 % conversion rates for CO₂ conversion processes. We also discuss diagnostics that may be employed in the near future to reveal the last few unconventional mechanisms that must be explained in order to address the current instability and short life of catalysts due to the harsh conditions of plasma. In successful implementations of diagnostics in literature, they have proven to be the key to unlocking the knowledge required to develop appropriate catalysts optimized for converting CO₂ in a plasma environment.