Methane Conversion to Hydrogen and Higher Hydrocarbons by Double Pulsed Glow Discharge

Pulsed atmospheric glow plasma, sustained by corona discharge, was utilized to convert methane. Analysis by gas chromatography showed that hydrogen and C₂-products are the main constituents of outlet mixture while C₂₊-products with small concentrations were also detected. The chemical energy efficiency turned out to be about 9% for the best result obtained by this type of reactor. It has been shown that more improvement of energy efficiency is possible by increasing the pulse repetition rate.