Dual mode plasma UV microreactor for ozonolysis and hydrogenation green chemistry

臭氧是一种强大的氧化剂，但传统上生产成本高昂，需要高电压操作和高功率消耗，通常在真空下用纯氧生产，低温储存，未使用，混合不良的臭氧是一种危险，需要昂贵的专用厂房来破坏。因此，臭氧只有在没有合理的替代方案时才被使用。我们开发了一种使用等离子体微反应器，在室温、大气压、空气原料中产生臭氧的方法，具有低电压操作、高产量和低功耗(大约是相同吞吐量的传统等离子体反应器的十分之一的功率消耗)。为了增加体积流量，我们在配料枪中对微反应器进行了多路复用，将臭氧直接输送到水溶液中，并通过微泡分散。我们正在开发这项技术，用于水部门，用于水净化和废水处理，在这些领域，臭氧生产和扩散的能源效率是一个强大的驱动力。我们的微气泡分散方法还应将分散速度提高一个数量级，从而将浪费和相关危险降至最低--剂量水平可以调整，以便所有臭氧或臭氧生产中的中间体都可以被溶解并在反应中消耗。从蒸汽中产生的等离子体分解一直被视为一种昂贵的制氢方法，据估计，传统等离子体反应器的效率为50%，落后于电解，与热化学循环持平。在等离子体微反应器的实验室试验中，我们在与臭氧反应相同的条件下从蒸汽中产生氢气：室温、大气压、低电压操作和低功耗。考虑到不可能实现比传统等离子体分解法节省10倍的能源效率，合乎逻辑的结论是，反应热的一部分来自蒸汽，其余的是电力消耗。这表明，只要有废气或废热的来源来提高蒸汽，就有可能大幅节省能源。当然，等离子体分解同时产生H2和O2，并且没有空间分离，就像在电解中一样。因此，需要将产品分开，以便分开使用。微泡提供了充分的分离，因为氢实际上不溶于水--氧在室温下的溶解度是水的25倍。因此，具有足够高水头的微泡实际上会被剥离氧气，因此当它们在上升通过水柱时在气液界面上破裂时，会富含氢气。由于许多废水的曝气是一个理想的处理步骤，因此很有可能在与工业工厂的其他处理操作集成的同时实现氢分离。由于臭氧分解反应的臭氧来源和氢化反应的氢气来源廉价，加药枪有潜力从生物质加工中经济地产生副产品--生物塑料、营养食品、精细化学品和制药的前体--例如，从农业、纸浆和造纸加工、藻类生物燃料和生物柴油生产的废物中生产副产品。虽然目前石油生产的燃料利润很高，但从历史上看，从桶的底部引入石化产品极大地提高了汽油精炼的利润。为了使生物燃料的生物加工有利可图(从而可持续)，可能需要一套类似的有利可图的联合产品。这项提议旨在构建用于工业规模喷枪加工的健壮原型，并评估其生产联产的经济潜力。

Ozone is a powerful oxidizing agent but is conventionally expensive to produce, requiring high voltage operation with high power draw, typically produced under vacuum with pure oxygen, cryogenically stored, and unspent, poorly mixed ozone is a hazard that requires expensive, dedicated plant room to destroy. Consequently, ozone is only used when there is no reasonable alternative.We have developed a method for producing ozone at room temperature, atmospheric pressure, from air feedstock, with low voltage operation, high yield, and low power consumption (approximately 1/10th the power draw of conventional plasma reactors with the same throughput), using plasma microreactors. In order to increase the volumetric flow rate, we have multiplexed the microreactors in a dosing lance that delivers the ozone directly into aqueous solution, with dispersal by microbubbles. We are developing this technology for use in the water sector, for applications in water purification and wastewater treatment, where energy efficiency in the production and dispersal of ozone is a strong driver. Our microbubble approach for dispersal should also improve dispersal rates by an order of magnitude, thus minimizing wastage and associated hazards - the level of dosing can be tuned so that all the ozone or intermediates in the production of ozone can be dissolved and consumed in reaction.Plasmolysis formation from steam has always been viewed as an expensive route to hydrogen production, with estimates of 50% efficiency with conventional plasma reactors, trailing behind electrolysis and about on par with thermochemical cycles. In laboratory trials with plasma microreactors, we generated hydrogen from steam with the same conditions as the ozone reaction: room temperature, atmospheric pressure, with low voltage operation,, and low power consumption. Given that it is impossible to achieve a tenfold energy efficiency savings over conventional plasmolysis, the logical conclusion is that some of the heat of reaction is drawn from the steam, and the remainder is the electricity draw. This suggests the potential for substantial energy savings wherever there is a source of waste steam or waste heat to raise steam.Of course, plasmolysis produces H2 and O2 simultaneously and with no space segregation, as in electrolysis. Hence there is a need to separate the products so as to use them separately. Microbubbles provide a sufficient separation due to the fact that hydrogen is practically insoluble in water - oxygen is 25-fold more soluble at room temperature. Hence microbubbles with a tall enough head of water will be practically stripped of oxygen, thus hydrogen rich when they burst at the gas-liquid interface upon rising through a column of water. Since aeration of many wastewaters is a desired processing step, there is every possibility that the hydrogen separation can be achieved while integrated with other processing operations on an industrial plant.With a cheap source of ozone for ozonolysis reactions and hydrogen for hydrogenation reactions, the dosing lance has the potential to yield co-products from biomass processing economically - precursors for bioplastics, nutraceuticals, fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals - from the waste products of agriculture, pulp and paper processing, algal biofuels and biodiesel production, for instance. Although currently petroleum production is highly profitable for the fuel, historically, the introduction of petrochemicals from the bottom of the barrel enormously enhanced the profitability of petrol refining. In order to make bioprocessing to biofuels profitable (and hence sustainable) a similar set of profitable co-products may be necessary. This proposal aims to construct the robust prototype for industrial scale processing of the dosing lance and assess its economic potential for producing co-products.