Recent progress of the application of plasma technology in sustainable energy

With the rapid development of modern human society and economy, how to achieve sustainable energy development is one of the key issues that human beings are facing. Fortunately, in the last two decades, the flourishing development of plasma technology and its applications in the field of energy technologies have provided more and more choices for the sustainable energy development. At present, the application of plasma technology in the field of energy mainly includes the following seven aspects: (1) Controlled nuclear fusion, which including magnetic confinement fusion and inertial confinement fusion; (2) solar cells and new photovoltaic materials; (3) Plasma-catalytic conversion of CO2 into value-added chemicals and fuels; (4) new types of energy storage materials and super capacitors; (5) Magnetic fluid power generation; (6) Plasma gasification for power & heat generation and assisted combustion. This paper is intended to provide a comprehensive overview of the recent progress of such application of plasma technology in the field of sustainable energy technologies. The recent researches and technological advances in those topics are presented and the development trends are analyzed. Then, the future challenges of the application of plasma technology in the field of sustainable energy are also discussed.