Effect of Nonthermal Plasma on the Methanation of Carbon Monoxide over Nickel Catalyst

Reduction of carbon monoxide to methane by hydrogen was investigated with a nonthermal plasma reactor in which Ni/alumina catalyst pellets was filled. The effect of reaction temperature, pressure and voltage on the conversion of CO was examined. It was found that the nonthermal plasma significantly enhanced the catalytic conversion of CO. The effect of the nonthermal plasma was especially remarkable at lower temperatures and pressures. At high temperatures, the catalyst itself exhibited very high catalytic activity for the conversion of CO. Since high pressure is unfavorable for creating electrical discharge plasma, the increase in pressure lowered the discharge power, thereby weakening the effect of the nonthermal plasma. With the nonthermal plasma alone, there was no conversion of CO. The reaction products identified by FTIR spectra were CH4, CO2 and H2O. FTIR spectra also showed that CO was converted primarily into CH4 with high selectivity above 90% at most experimental conditions.