Innovative Methane Conversion Technology Using Atmospheric Pressure Non-thermal Plasma

Abstract

Non-thermal plasma assisted methane reforming is reviewed. Plasma catalysis is one of the innovative next generation green technologies that may meet the needs for energy and materials conservation as well as environmental protection. Non-thermal plasma uniquely generates reactive species independently of reaction temperature, and these species are used to initiate chemical reactions at unexpectedly lower temperatures than normal thermochemical reactions. Non-thermal plasma thus broadens the operation window of existing chemical conversion processes, and ultimately allows modification of the process parameters to minimize energy and material consumption. The general aspects of plasma assisted fuel reforming including arc plasma to non-thermal plasma are described. We specifically focus on dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) as one of the viable non-thermal plasma sources for practical fuel reforming. Two contrasting approaches of DBD-oriented plasma catalysis of methane are introduced: (1) Low temperature (300-500 ) methane steam reforming using a plasma-catalyst hybrid reactor, and (2) Room temperature direct methane conversion to methanol using a microplasma reactor. The practical background and unique characteristics of each application such as the plasma-catalyst synergistic effect and highly non-equilibrium product distribution are explained.

Simulation of One‐Stage Dimethyl Ether Synthesis over a Core‐Shell Catalyst

“…This is not really an issue for pure CO 2 splitting, but it is very promising if a coreagent (e.g., methane or water) is added, to produce value‐added compounds, such as syngas, methanol, formaldehyde, and formic acid 46. 72, 75…”

Microfluidic chips for plasma flow chemistry: application to controlled oxidative processes

“…), ozone gener-ation [7][8][9][10][11][12] , air and water depollution (including volative organic compounds removal) 9,[13][14][15][16] or plasma-assisted combustion 17 . Meanwhile, plasmachemical synthesis has barely ventured beyond (nano-)material synthesis [18][19][20][21][22][23][24] , plasma-assisted polymerization [25][26][27] and a couple of gas-phase reactions (including benzene hydroxylation [28][29][30][31][32] and methane reforming [33][34][35][36][37] ).…”

“…A significant part of present and past plasma-enhanced chemical reactions involve a catalyst, either activated or regenerated by the plasma 34,[38][39][40][41][42] . These plasma catalysis have exhibited a relatively low cost in equipment as well as a high energy efficiency, though still facing difficulties to replace conventional processes at a large scale 42 .…”

Plasma‐activated methane partial oxidation reaction to oxygenate platform chemicals over Fe, Mo, Pd and zeolite catalysts

“…This is the reason why most researchers use room-temperature or cooled DBD for this process, as lower neutral gas temperature seems to yield more oxygenate products. [41][42][43][44][45][46] With the oxygen content, a similar effect can be observed. The conversion does indeed get higher as we get closer to the stoichiometric CH 4 /O 2 ratio of 50:50.…”