Highly turbulent quench chamber

A method of cooling a reactive mixture in a quench chamber, where the reaction mixture comprises plasma-energized precursor material from an output of a plasma reactor, comprising:

• flowing the reactive mixture from a reactor through a reactive mixture inlet into a quench region having a frusto-conical shape with a wide end and a narrow end, the quench region formed within a portion of a quench chamber having a frusto-conical surface, wherein the flow of the reactive mixture forms a mixture momentum vector leading from the wide end to the narrow end, and wherein the quench region is configured to enable the reactive mixture to expand upon exiting the reactive mixture inlet;
• flowing a conditioning fluid into the quench region through at least one fluid supply inlet separate from the reactive mixture inlet along a plurality of conditioning momentum vectors from the wide end to the narrow end, wherein the flow of conditioning fluid into the quench region forms a turbulent flow within the quench region, wherein a gap is formed between the reactive mixture inlet and the frusto-conical surface of the frusto-conical body, the gap acting as a channel for supplying conditioning fluid into the quench region, and wherein the frusto-conical surface of the frusto-conical body is configured to produce the turbulent flow within the quench region;
• mixing the conditioning fluid and the reactive mixture within the turbulent flow of the quench region, thereby quenching the reactive mixture with the conditioning fluid to form a cooled gas-particle mixture;
• and
• flowing the cooled gas-particle mixture out of an outlet at the narrow end of the quench region, wherein the cooled gas-particle mixture comprises a plurality of particles entrained in a fluid.