The decomposition of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) to hydrogen and sulfur with Al2O3, MoOx/Al2O3, CoOx/Al2O3 and NiO/Al2O3 packed non-thermal plasma dielectric barrier discharge reactor was studied. The reaction was carried out with 5-mm discharge gap during the decomposition of 5 vol.% H2S at 150ml/min (STP) flow rate. Typical results indicated the conversion of similar to 50% at a specific input energy of similar to 0.92kJ/l H2S and 10% (in length) packed reactor showed the best conversion. Among the catalysts studied, MoOx and CoOx supported on Al2O3 showed high performance, which may be caused by synergy between plasma excitation of the carrier gas molecules and catalytic behaviour of MoOx and CoOx. Copyright (c) 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.