Direct methanol synthesis using non-thermal pulsed plasma generated by a solid state pulse generator

Abstract

Conversion of hydrocarbon fuels to methanol will promote their efficient utilization since methanol can easily be converted to hydrogen using low temperature heat energy, which would otherwise be disposed. Conventional process for methanol synthesis requires large amount of energy, therefore it can not be applied in the energy utilization system. The non-thermal plasma process can induce chemical reactions that do not occur under usual condition, and attempts have been made to apply a pulsed discharge plasma for direct methanol synthesis. A solid state pulse generator has been developed to increase frequency of pulse. A pulsed voltage of 1 ∼ 2 μ s rise time and 4 ∼ 5 μ s pulse width can be generated with frequency of 10 kHz. It was found that voltage and current characteristics was different with type of the reactor. The pulse generator was used for the methanol synthesis. Methanol with concentration of up to 0.7% could be obtained at 5 kHz pulse frequency and 6.7 sec gas residence time, when CH4 O2 (96:4) mixture was used at room temperature.