Cold plasma as an emerging catalytic route for oil modification.

The effect of cold plasma on the oxidation, hydrogenation, transesterification, and pyrolysis reactions is investigated. Also, the effect of cold plasma parameters on these reactions and the advantages and challenges of cold plasma are investigated. Cold plasma can produce low-trans partial hydrogenated oil at low temperature without catalyst. Besides, oil modified through transesterification and pyrolysis processes using cold plasma technique can be used for biofuel production. Oxidation during cold plasma treatment can be inhibited by omitting the oxygen from carrier gas and applying the lowest possible input power and treatment time. One of the main challenges of using dielectric barrier discharge device at large scale is providing high plasma intensity for large amounts of raw materials. In microwave discharge plasma device, high capital investment is the main challenge for scaling up. In conclusion, cold plasma technique can hydrogenate and transesterify oils at low temperature.