Altering Conversion and Product Selectivity of Dry Reforming of Methane in a Dielectric Barrier Discharge by Changing the Dielectric Packing Material

Abstract

We studied the influence of dense, spherical packing materials, with different chemical compositions, on the dry reforming of methane (DRM) in a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor. Although not catalytically activated, a vast effect on the conversion and product selectivity could already be observed, an influence which is often neglected when catalytically activated plasma packing materials are being studied. The α-Al2O3 packing material of 2.0–2.24 mm size yields the highest total conversion (28%), as well as CO2 (23%) and CH4 (33%) conversion and a high product fraction towards CO (~70%) and ethane (~14%), together with an enhanced CO/H2 ratio of 9 in a 4.5 mm gap DBD at 60 W and 23 kHz. γ-Al2O3 is only slightly less active in total conversion (22%) but is even more selective in products formed than α-Al2O3. BaTiO3 produces substantially more oxygenated products than the other packing materials but is the least selective in product fractions and has a clear negative impact on CO2 conversion upon addition of CH4. Interestingly, when comparing to pure CO2 splitting and when evaluating differences in products formed, significantly different trends are obtained for the packing materials, indicating a complex impact of the presence of CH4 and the specific nature of the packing materials on the DRM process.