Impact of Argon in Reforming of (CH4 + CO2) in Surface Dielectric Barrier Discharge Reactor to Produce Syngas and Liquid Fuels

Abstract

The aim of this work is to study the role of argon during plasma reforming of methane and carbon dioxide in order to convert Biogas into liquid fuels. Mixtures of synthetic CH4 and CO2, representing typical biogas compositions, were processed in a surface dielectric barrier discharge reactor in the presence of argon, which is considered to improve the discharge conditions. Our measurements showed that at constant feed flow rate and constant applied power, increasing the argon percentage from 0 to 66% in the feed, leads to increase the electron density up to 60% and the electron mean energy up to 50%. In these conditions, the absolute conversions of CH4 and CO2 are improved respectively from 19 to 43% and from 11 to 25%, the H2/CO ratio enhances up to 0.9. However, despite these improvements, the addition of argon beyond 33% decreases the carbon balance by deposition of black carbon and soot, decreases the selectivity of liquid products and finally lowers the energy efficiency of CH4 + CO2 mixture conversion. Meanwhile the selectivity of 10 liquid fuels principally alcohols, ketones and light organic acids, obtained in a yield of 3 wt%, depends also on the flow rate of argon in the feed mixture.