PREMiERE

PhD grant for modelling work at IPFN (Instituto de Plasmas e Fusão Nuclear, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa).

Summary

Achieving CO2 dissociation at low energetic cost is the key for various energy storage strategies (“solar fuels” production) and for the viability of new organic synthesis (“green chemistry”). Non Thermal Plasmas (NTP) are very promising for activating CO2 molecule because of their ability to spend most of the energy on vibrational excitation of molecules.

PREMiERE is a 3-year project focused on a thorough theoretical and simulation investigation of all the steps involved in plasma decomposition of CO2. The work will be done in close collaboration with several foreign laboratories, who have important experimental facilities and will conduct a series of measurement campaigns that complement the theoretical investigation.

The current call if for a one-year renewable grant at the level of PhD, to develop fully self-consistent models for CO2-containing gas mixtures. The theoretical formulation couples the electron, vibrational and chemical kinetics, together with charged particle transport, in order to obtain a deep understanding of the plasma dynamics and discharge behaviour. The work will be teamed up with project SYCAMORE, an experimental PhD project developed at Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France, under the supervision of Olivier Guaitella.