The effect of stage number of multistage AC gliding arc discharge reactors on the process performance of the combined reforming and partial oxidation of simulated CO 2 -containing natural gas having a CH 4 :C 2 H 6 :C 3 H 8 :CO 2 molar ratio of 70:5:5:20 was investigated. For the experiments with partial oxidation, either pure oxygen or air was used as the oxygen source with a fixed hydrocarbon-to-oxygen molar ratio of 2/1. Without partial oxidation at a constant feed flow rate, all conversions of hydrocarbons, except CO 2 , greatly increased with increasing number of stages from 1 to 3; but beyond 3 stages, the reactant conversions remained almost unchanged. However, for a constant residence time, only C 3 H 8 conversion gradually increased, whereas the conversions of the other reactants remained almost unchanged. The addition of oxygen was found to significantly enhance the process performance of natural gas reforming. The utilization of air as an oxygen source showed a superior process performance to pure oxygen in terms of reactant conversion and desired product selectivity. The optimum energy consumption of 12.05 9 10 24 eV per mole of reactants converted and 9.65 9 10 24 eV per mole of hydrogen produced was obtained using air as an oxygen source and 3 stages of plasma reactors at a constant residence time of 4.38 s.