Plasma activation of methane for hydrogen production in a N<sub>2</sub> rotating gliding arc warm plasma: A chemical kinetics study



Zhang, Hao, Wang, Weizong, Li, Xiaodong, Han, Long, Yan, Mi, Zhong, Yingjie and Tu, Xin ORCID: 0000-0002-6376-0897
(2018) Plasma activation of methane for hydrogen production in a N<sub>2</sub> rotating gliding arc warm plasma: A chemical kinetics study. CHEMICAL ENGINEERING JOURNAL, 345. pp. 67-78.

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Abstract

In this work, a chemical kinetics study on methane activation for hydrogen production in a warm plasma, i.e., N2 rotating gliding arc (RGA), was performed for the first time to get new insights into the underlying reaction mechanisms and pathways. A zero-dimensional chemical kinetics model was developed, which showed a good agreement with the experimental results in terms of the conversion of CH4 and product selectivities, allowing us to get a better understanding of the relative significance of various important species and their related reactions to the formation and loss of CH4, H2, and C2H2 etc. An overall reaction scheme was obtained to provide a realistic picture of the plasma chemistry. The results reveal that the electrons and excited nitrogen species (mainly N2(A)) play a dominant role in the initial dissociation of CH4. However, the H atom induced reaction CH4 + H → CH3 + H2, which has an enhanced reaction rate due to the high gas temperature (over 1200 K), is the major contributor to both the conversion of CH4 and H2 production, with its relative contributions of >90% and >85%, respectively, when only considering the forward reactions. The coexistence and interaction of thermochemical and plasma chemical processes in the rotating gliding arc warm plasma significantly enhance the process performance. The formation of C2 hydrocarbons follows a nearly one-way path of C2H6 → C2H4 → C2H2, explaining why the selectivities of C2 products decreased in the order of C2H2 > C2H4 > C2H6.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: Rotating gliding arc, Warm plasma, Methane decomposition, Chemical kinetics model, Plasma chemistry
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 28 Mar 2018 06:35
Last Modified: 13 Oct 2023 10:04
DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2018.03.123
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3019545