Development of a new hybrid reactor for plasma-driven catalytic dry reforming of methane

We report here the development of a prototype reactor for CO2 reforming of methane based on the application of corona discharges above the surface of a catalyst. The system has been designed to perform activity trials with and without plasma and with and without a heterogeneous catalyst. The catalyst can be introduced as a powder or in grains and is placed directly into the discharge zone. It is also possible to vary the distance between the active electrode and the catalyst to optimize the synergy between plasma and catalyst. The reactor was designed in such a way that it can be operated at temperatures up to 800°C, necessary for a purely catalytic process, without suffering any damage to the electrodes due to thermal expansion. The first tests will be carried out without the heterogeneous catalyst, so as to study the process induced by plasma alone. Plasma will be produced by different types of discharges in order to find and optimize the best power supply to be used in the combined experiments. Diagnostics includes spectroscopy techniques like FT-IR and OES (optical emission spectroscopy) as well as GC analysis coupled to different detectors (MS, FID and TCD).