Reforming of CO₂-containing natural gas with steam in AC gliding arc discharge for hydrogen production

ABSTRACT

In this study, a low-temperature gliding arc discharge system was used to investigate the effects of steam content and operational parameters, i.e. total feed flow rate, applied voltage, and input frequency, on the reforming performance of CO₂-containing natural gas. The addition of steam less than 10% was found to enhance both selectivities for hydrogen and carbon monoxide with a significant reduction of power consumptions. The highest hydrogen selectivity and yield with the lowest power consumptions were achieved at a steam content of 10 mol%, a total feed flow rate of 100 cm³/min (corresponding to a very short residence time of 1.37 s), an applied voltage of 13.5 kV and an input frequency of 300 Hz. Under these optimum conditions, the oxidative dehydrogenation reactions to produce hydrogen were dominant with the minimum activities of all undesired reactions of cracking and coupling. Both of the short residence time (1.37 s) with a low bulk temperature (lower than 200°C) in the plasma zone under atmospheric pressure, indicate that the studied plasma reactor (gliding arc system) is superior to conventional catalytic reactors for reforming of natural gas.

KEYWORDS:

• Gliding arc discharge
• natural gas
• plasma
• steam reforming

Additional information

Funding

Rachadapisek Sompote Fund for Postdoctoral Fellowship, Chulalongkorn University is greatly grateful for providing a Postdoctoral Scholarship to the first author and a TRF Senior Research Scholar grant [RTA 5780008] from Thailand Research Fund to the corresponding author is also acknowledged. The sustainable Petroleum and Petrochemicals Research Unit under the Center of Excellence on the Petrochemical and Materials Technology, Chulalongkorn University also provided research facilities and partial financial support for this project.