Conversion of methane for higher hydrocarbon fuel synthesis using pulsed discharge plasma method

This paper presents new conversion method of methane to higher hydrocarbon fuels such as methyl alcohol (methanol), formaldehyde, using pulsed discharge plasma under room temperature and atmospheric pressure. The experiments were carried out with special attention to the effect of the specific input energy (SIE) defined as the electrical input energy per unit mass of the material gas. In the study of partial oxidation of methane, experimental results indicated that the methanol and formaldehyde production has an optimum SIE value. The highest methanol and formaldehyde production ability and reaction selectivity were achieved with relatively low SIE of 360 J/l, based on feed gas. Under this optimum condition, a maximum production ability of about 0.65 μmol/J and selectivity of 64% were obtained. On the other hand, in order to achieve selective reaction of methane, conversion of methane with halogen materials to methyl halide such as methyl iodine was also investigated. In the experiment, maximum methyl iodine production selectivity of 95% was achieved with the production ability of 0.45 μmol/J.