A mechanistic study on partial oxidation of methane to methanol with hydrogen peroxide vapor in atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge

Abstract

In this paper, a detailed fluid model is developed for the conversion of methane to methanol with hydrogen peroxide vapor in an atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge. The two-dimensional axisymmetric fluid model is constructed, in which 107 plasma chemical reactions and 28 different species are considered. Our attention is focused on physicochemical mechanism of methanol formation during the complicated chemical reaction processes of reactant molecules dissociation by electron impacting and neutral radical recombination. First, spatial and temporal characteristics of main radicals and ions, such as H, CH3, OH, CH3OH, CH3O, CH2OH, CH4+, CH3+, H2O2+, and H2O+, are presented. It is found that the streamer discharge is sustained by the direct electron-impact ionization of methane molecules. The dominant positive ion flux on to the dielectric surface is methane ion, and its peak value is located at axis. Then, the dominant chemical routes governing the production and loss of CH3OH and OH are discussed in detail. Finally, a schematic overview of dominant plasma reaction pathways for partial oxidation of methane to methanol with hydrogen peroxide vapor in atmospheric dielectric barrier discharge is summarized.