Conversion of methane by CO2+H2O+CH4 plasma

Philip G. Rutberg, Vadim A. Kuznetsov, Victor E. Popov, Sergey D. Popov, Alexander V. Surov, Dmitry I. Subbotin and Alexander N. Bratsev

Applied Energy, 2015, vol. 148, issue C, 159-168

Abstract: A promising method of methane conversion by thermal plasma is presented. It allows syngas production with a set H2/CO ratio of ∼2.1 and with a ∼95.2% H2+CO content. In comparison with other plasma methods, it differs in its high methane conversion level (91–98.3%), low energy consumption (31.8–35.9MJ/kg) of converted methane and high selectivity on H2 and CO. The influence of energy consumption and oxidizer excess on the key parameters of the process is studied. It is found that with a weak influence of heat losses and a volumetric flow of thermal energy (∼1MW/m3), the optimum energy consumption is approximately 25.5–27.1MJ/kg of injected methane and the optimum excess of oxidizer is 0–10%. The principal cause of the differences in experimental and calculated values is the wall influence (heat losses). The economic efficiency by combining the method and Fischer–Tropsch synthesis is estimated for the USA, and the profits of end-product sales have exceeded the expenses by ∼67%.

Keywords: Associated petroleum gas; Methane; Plasma conversion; Syngas; Plasma torch (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261915002731
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:appene:v:148:y:2015:i:c:p:159-168

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/405891/bibliographic
http://www.elsevier. ... 405891/bibliographic

DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.02.087

Access Statistics for this article

Applied Energy is currently edited by J. Yan

More articles in Applied Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().