CO₂ Reforming Of CH₄ By Atmospheric Pressure Abnormal Glow Plasma

Both CO2 and CH4 are major greenhouse gases and CH4 is also a major constituent of natural gas. With the continuous decrease of petroleum resources, more and more attention has been focused on the exploitation of natural gas that is abundant worldwide. Conversion of CH4 and CO2 is concerned not only to energy utilization and resource disposition in the future, but also to protection of the environment.In this dissertation, through some improvements of conventional reactor structure, a new abnormal glow discharge plasma chemical reaction apparatus under atmospheric pressure has been invented. Simple structure, stable discharge and convenient power source are outstanding characteristics of the reaction apparatus. In addition, all feed gases flow across the plasma area in the reactor so that they could be reacted.Using the self-made plasma chemical apparatus, the conversion of CH4 and CO2 to syngas under atmospheric pressure was studied. The effect of parameters of the electric field and reaction conditions on both reactions and the characteristics of energy consumption under different technology conditions were investigated. High conversion of feed and yield of CO were obtained in abnormal glow plasma reaction of CH4 and CO2 mixture at atmospheric pressure. For the distance between electrodes at 10mm, CH4/CO2 molar ratio in feed at 4/6, flow rate at 140 mL/min, power at 95 W, CH4 and CO2 conversion, and the yield of CO were 91.9%, 83.2% and 71.0%, respectively. The conversion of both CH4 and CO2 reactants increased with the increase of power or the distance between electrodes, but decreased with the increasing flow rate of feed. Molar ratio of H2/CO increased with increasing CH4 concentration in the feed gas. Feasible...