Study on $CO_2$ dissociation and $CH_4$ dry reforming characteristics by high power inductively coupled plasma torch at atmospheric pressure

Abstract

For the last decade, many research groups have been studying carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) dissociation and methane ($CH_4$) dry reforming at atmospheric pressure using various plasma sources such as dielectric barrier discharge, microwave discharge, arc discharge, and so on. The reason is to convert the $CO_2$ and $CH_4$ produced by the power industry into synthetic gas (syngas) and hydrocarbons, useful materials. However, researches have not yet been actively performed to obtain large amounts of syngas with high energy efficiency. In this study, $CO_2$ dissociation and $CH_4$ dry reforming, by high power inductively coupled plasma (ICP) torch at atmospheric pressure, have been studied. After the $CH_4$ dry reforming, residual $CO_2$ and $CH_4$ were measured by gas chromatography. Also, the energy conversion efficiency of the dry reforming process was studied by measuring the amounts of syngas and hydrocarbons in the resulting mixture. Simulation studies of chemical reaction calculations were also performed. In this thesis, we study physical properties of $CO_2$ dissociation and $CH_4$ dry reforming at atmospheric pressure, including characteristics of syngas and hydrocarbons production, the conversion efficiency characteristics of $CO_2$ and $CH_4$, and the energy conversion efficiency characteristics of the total reaction process by our high power ICP torch source discharging at atmospheric pressure,