Plasma-catalytic dry reforming of methane to syngas using a planar plate DBD reactor packed with Ni/SiO2 fiber catalyst.

The aim of this research was to investigate the syngas production from dry reforming of methane (DRM) in a planar plate dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma reactor packed with Ni-based catalyst on SiO2 fiber (SF) and SiO2 porous (SP) supports. The SiO2 fiber support was synthesized by sol-gel and electrospinning techniques. Fresh Ni/SiO2 catalysts were characterized by XRD, N2 adsorption-desorption, SEM-EDS, TEM-EDS and XPS. The effects of full and partial packing configurations of the catalyst, Ni loading on SF and SP supports, and applied voltage were investigated on the DBD plasma-catalytic DRM performance. The results showed the partial packing configuration of the catalyst into this studied DBD plasma reactor and the increasing applied voltage gave a positive effect in improving performance. Moreover, the Ni loading and SiO2 support type (SF and SP) had a significant role on the overall system performance. The conditions with partial packing of the 10%Ni/SF catalyst and an applied voltage of 15 kV exhibited good results based on CH4 and CO2 conversions, syngas yield, hydrogen-to-carbon monoxide molar ratio and energy efficiency.