Atmospheric-pressure microwave plasma reforming of ethane-carbon dioxide mixtures

Autor: Woorin Kang, Yongjun Kwon, Gyeongmin Park, Cheolwoo Bong, Seong-kyun Im, Moon Soo Bak
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of CO2 Utilization, Vol 86, Iss , Pp 102894- (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2212-9839
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcou.2024.102894
Popis: Atmospheric-pressure microwave plasma reforming of ethane (C2H6)–carbon dioxide (CO2) mixtures was investigated, potentially for plasma dry reforming of large hydrocarbons. The plasma was characterized using optical emission spectroscopy, and the reforming process was analyzed using gas chromatography and thermocouple measurements. The temperature of the plasma region reached approximately 5000 K, regardless of the specific energy input, which was sufficiently high to initiate the reforming reactions. About 90 % of the C2H6-CO2 mixture was reformed into H2 and CO with selectivities of about 83 %, at a microwave power and mixture flow rate of 2 kW and 10 slpm, respectively, while the mass flow rate of unmeasured species was less than 1 % of the total. An energy efficiency without any heat recovery schemes was determined to be 49 %, which was slightly higher than that for plasma methane dry reforming because the syngas production becomes favored at a lower temperature for ethane dry reforming. A more detailed analysis was performed by developing a reactor network model. The simulation revealed that the reforming process proceeded as the locally heated plasma flow interacts with its relatively cold surrounding flow through heat and mass transfer. Carbon monoxide (CO) was produced mainly through the reaction H + CO2 → OH + CO, whereas molecular hydrogen (H2) was mainly produced through hydrogen (H) abstraction reactions of hydrocarbons. Notably, acetylene (C2H2) and ethylene (C2H4) were the major by-products due to their higher H abstraction energies.
Databáze: Directory of Open Access Journals