Effects of Pulse Parameters on Dry Reforming of CH4 by Pulsed DBD Plasma

Dry reforming of methane (DRM) is a technology that converts methane and carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals and clean fuels. It is an effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate Greenhouse effect. Non-thermal plasma (NTP) can effectively avoid the problems of high cost and high operating temperature in traditional thermal methods, which is considered as an alternative way for DRM. The DRM process driven by microsecond pulsed dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma was studied in this paper. By changing the repetition frequency and pulse width, the effects of different discharge parameters on the conversion characteristics of DRM were investigated. The results show that the main gaseous products of DRM reaction are syngas (H2&CO) and C2H6. CH4&CO2 conversions and the syngas yields increase with the increase of repetition frequency; however, more carbon and liquid hydrocarbons are produced at higher repetition frequency, which leads to the decrease of hydrogen and carbon balance. While with longer pulse width, higher current amplitude of secondary discharge during voltage falling edge can be obtained, which is favorable for promoting the conversion of CH4&CO2 into syngas. © 2019, Electrical Technology Press Co. Ltd. All right reserved.