Background

In order to tackle the global energy challenges resulting from greenhouse gases, new and emerging technologies are being developed at an accelerating pace. Plasma, the fourth state of matter, an electrically charged gas mixture, offers a promising and attractive alternative for the synthesis of fuels and chemicals, providing a unique way to enable thermodynamically unfavourable reactions to take place at ambient conditions. In non-thermal plasmas, the gas temperature remains low (as low as room temperature), while the electrons are highly energetic with a typical electron temperature of 1-10 eV, which is sufficient to activate inert molecules (e.g. CO2 and CH4) present and produce a variety of chemically reactive species including radicals, excited atoms, molecules and ions. These energetic species,