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Steam reforming of methane in a temperature-controlled dielectric barrier discharge reactor: the role of electron-induced chemistry versus thermochemistry.
- Source :
-
Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics . 9/26/2018, Vol. 51 Issue 38, p1-1. 1p. - Publication Year :
- 2018
-
Abstract
- While classic reforming processes rely on heat and chemical equilibrium, plasma-based reforming processes possess the ability to induce non-equilibrium and reactive chemistry at low temperatures using high energy electrons. To better understand the distinctive roles of both electron-induced chemistry and thermochemistry during plasma-assisted fuel reforming, we previously developed a temperature-controlled dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor, which controlled the gas temperature and the electron temperature independently. Here, we investigate plasma-assisted steam reforming of methane using the temperature-controlled DBD reactor and electron-kinetics calculations. We investigated the individual effects of the determining factors for electron-induced chemistry (i.e. reduced electric field intensity and discharge power) and for thermochemistry (i.e. background gas temperature) by varying the discharge power, gas temperature, and pressure inside the reactor. As a result, we found that both the electron-induced chemistry and thermochemistry governed the reactant conversions. Thermochemistry positively affected the methane conversion in particular, but negatively affected the water conversion as the gas temperature increased. The electron-induced chemistry weakly affected the product distribution, while the background temperature (thermochemistry) strongly influenced the product selectivity and composition by altering the chemical pathways involving the plasma-generated reactive species at the given temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *METHANE
*DIELECTRIC devices
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00223727
- Volume :
- 51
- Issue :
- 38
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 131318129
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/aad7e7