Plasmas have been introduced in catalytic reactors due to their ability to dissociate and ionize molecules and/or generate radicals that can promote subsequent reactions. A highly sought-after goal of plasma-assisted catalysis is the ability to control the reaction selectivity by tuning the plasma environment or plasma-catalyst interaction. We have been particularly interested in the plasma-assisted catalytic activation of CH4 in the dry reforming of methane. This presentation will discuss our recent research results from a collaborative project focused on plasmas at interfaces. Because catalysis occurring in a plasma environment is quite different from traditional thermal catalysis, we compare all of our plasma-assisted experiments to thermal experiments. For these studies, we use a nickel catalyst (Ni/γ-Al2O3) to facilitate the reforming of CH4 with CO2 under the presence of dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma at various gas temperatures. We have performed detailed kinetic experiments to determine the catalytic consequences when the partial pressures of the reactants, reaction temperatures, and DBD-driven power are varied. Under certain reaction conditions, we have experimental results showing enhancement in C-H activation of CH4 using the DBD plasma in the presence of a catalyst. The H2:CO selectivity is also altered in the presence of the DBD plasma. This presentation will highlight our motivation for plasma-assisted catalysis and recent results for the dry reforming of methane as a model reaction.

Plasma-assisted catalytic dry reforming of methane: Exploring the effects of dielectric barrier discharge plasma on catalyst performance

251st National Meeting (2016)

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