Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing, Vol.30, No.2, 257-266, 2010
Dry Reforming of Methane with Carbon Dioxide Using Pulsed DC Arc Plasma at Atmospheric Pressure
Dry reforming of CH(4) with CO(2) to produce syngas was investigated in a plasma reactor without catalysts at atmospheric pressure. The reactants passed through the plasma zone and reacted in milliseconds with high conversions and selectivity due to the localized high temperature. The results showed that both conversions and selectivity were higher when using a DC arc discharge than using a pulsed DC arc. Increasing the input energy density promoted the conversions of reactants. At an input power of 204 W, the conversions of CO(2) and CH(4) reached 99.3 and 99.6%, respectively, and the selectivity to products was almost 100%, where the molar ratio of CO(2)/CH(4) was 1 with the reactants flow rate of 100 ml/min. Very little coke was formed during the course of reaction. Key parameters such as the pulse frequency, the input power and the total feed flow rate were studied to find the optimum operating condition.