Experimental study on dry reforming of methane by a plasma catalytic hybrid system

In this paper, the plasma coupled catalyst was used for the dry reforming of methane (DRM). The impacts of the reaction temperature, the molar ratio of CO₂/CH₄, and the concentration of the main gas components (N₂, H₂, CO, H₂O) on the conversion rate of CH₄ and the energy efficiency of plasma catalysis were observed. The results shows that the conversion rate of CH₄ is 41.57%, with La-Ni/γ-Al₂O₃ as the catalyst, the reaction temperature being 450℃ and the molar ratio of CO₂/CH₄ being 1.0, and without other gases. The conversion rate of CH₄ increases with the increase of the molar ratio of CO₂/CH₄. The conversion rate of CH₄ is 92.82% respectively during DRM by plasma catalysis, with the molar ratio of CO₂/CH₄ being 5.0. The reaction temperature and the molar ratio of CO₂/CH₄ have a significant effect on CH₄ conversion. The excited particles in the system are influenced by the changes of gas composition, which affect not only CH₄ conversion directly, but also the carbon deposition on the surface of catalyst. The addition of N₂ and H₂O in the reaction system not only improves conversion of CH₄ but also inhibits carbon deposition. The addition of H₂ and CO reduces the conversion of CH₄ significantly. The results are expected to provide basic data and reference for the development of the synthetic process of chemicals through biomass gasification.