Advanced Low-Temperature Methane Reforming in Non-Thermal Plasma and Catalyst Hybrid Reactor

Abstract

This paper descries advanced low-temperature steam reforming of methane in plasma-catalyst hybrid reactor. Synergistic effect between Dielectric Barrier Discharge (DBD) and 3wt%Ni/SiO₂ catalyst was observed at lower reaction temperature (400°C-600°C). Methane conversion exceeded far beyond equilibrium conversion, while product selectivity tended to follow equilibrium composition at given conditions: energy cost and energy efficiency were improved by 134 MJ/kg_H₂ and 69%. According to numerical simulation of barrier discharge in pure methane, production of large number of vibrationally excited methane seems to contribute significant increase in methane conversion since vibrational species promoted dissociative chemisorption on nickel surface at lower temperature. Reaction mechanism is also discussed based on gas temperature measurement by emission spectroscopy of plasma reactor.