Characterization of a DBD cold plasma to convert sugarcane bagasse in bioethanol

• Grant number: 12/15638-8
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Visiting Researcher Grant - International
• Start date: December 17, 2012
• End date: December 16, 2013
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Physics of Fluids, Plasma Physics and Electrical Discharge
• Principal Investigator: Jayr de Amorim Filho
• Grantee: Jayr de Amorim Filho
• Visiting researcher: Nikolaos Spyrou
• Visiting researcher institution: University of Patras, Greece
• Host Institution: Centro Nacional de Pesquisa em Energia e Materiais (CNPEM). Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Brasil). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The principal aim of this project is to characterize the non-equilibrium atmospheric pressure cold plasma created by a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor intended for biomaterial surface modification, especially for sugarcane treatment and conversion to bioethanol. A DBD cold plasma reactor, especially designed for the sugarcane treatment, will be electrically supplied by a sinusoidal HV (up to 20 kV) generator which operates in the range of 5-20 kHz. The reactor will be operating at controlled conditions of gas flow rate, of high voltage level and frequency and DBD gap length. The study of the influence of these reactor characteristics to the plasma behavior will be an object of the project. When cold plasma breakdown conditions are satisfied, there is production of cold plasma which covers the biomaterial deposited on the dielectric electrode. An important effort will be done to studying the interaction between cold plasma and the material surface submitted to the plasma influence. The expected modification (mechanical, physical and chemical) on the sugarcane bagasse, may strongly modify the physicochemical activity of various species (charge carriers, excited molecules, radicals, …) produced by the DBD plasma. These species, interacting with the material surface, can alter some characteristic properties of the lignocellulosic material as electrical conductivity, capacitance, mechanical stress, wetting, & which in turn induces different plasma conditions during DBD treatment. Hence, a particular attention will be paid to the implementation and the use of a performing diagnostic tool as optical emission spectroscopy (OES) and mass spectrometry (MS) which allows measurements of cold plasma characteristics (electron and gas temperatures) as well as reactive species created in the DBD plasma. Obviously, prior to characterize the interaction of plasma with sugarcane, DBD reactor operating conditions will be systematically studied without any material on the dielectric surface of the grounded electrode. An important effort will be done to investigate the physical structure and behavior of the sheath established between cold plasma and dielectric electrode surface. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SPYROU, NICOLAS; DE AMORIM, JAYR. Atmospheric Pressure DBD Low-Temperature Plasma Reactor for the Treatment of Sugarcane Bagasse. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PLASMA SCIENCE, v. 47, n. 3, p. 1583-1592, MAR 2019. (12/15638-8)