Abstract
Steam reforming of methane, ethane, propane, and neopentane was investigated with two types of nonthermal plasma reactors. With a ferroelectric packed-bed reactor (FPR) in N2, almost the same conversions were obtained for ethane, propane, and neopentane, but methane was less reactive than these hydrocarbons. Hydrogen gas yieid decreased in the order: methane ≈ ethane > propane > neopentane. The molar ratio of H2 to CO {[H2]/[CO]} exceeded 3.5 for all the hydrocarbons. [H2]/[CO] did not change in the range of H2O content from 0.5 % to 2.5 %. At the volumetric ratio of H2O to Hydrocarbon = 2.0, carbon balances were poor for ethane, propane, and neopentane, but almost all of the carbon atoms in the reacted methane were recovered as CO and CO2. The selectivities of CO and CO2 depended on the chemical structures of the substrate hydrocarbons. It is considered that the water-gas-shift reaction proceeds backward for the reaction systems of hydrogen-rich hydrocarbons. FPR maintained the same performance for 10 h in the steam reforming of methane. The efficiency of a silent discharge plasma reactor was much lower than that of FPR.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1795-1801 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Conference Record - IAS Annual Meeting (IEEE Industry Applications Society) |
| Volume | 3 |
| Publication status | Published - 2002 |
| Externally published | Yes |
| Event | 37th IAS Annual Meeting and World Conference on Industrial applications of Electrical Energy - Pittsburgh, PA, United States Duration: Oct 13 2002 → Oct 18 2002 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Control and Systems Engineering
- Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering