Kinetic Effects of Non-Equilibrium Plasma-Assisted Methane Steam Reforming on Heat Recovery in Chemically Recuperated Gas Turbine

Plasma is proposed as a prospective tool for chemical heat recovery process without restriction from reaction temperature. The author designed DBD catalytic reactors and carried out extensive experiments to investigate methane conversion and products yield and analyze the effect laws of steam to methane ratio, resident time and reaction temperature on methane steam reforming (MSR). Based on extensive experimental studies of steam reforming, a detailed reaction mechanism for the plasma-assisted MSR was developed and evaluated by comparison of experimentally derived and numerically predicted conversion and products yield. The comparisons showed the kinetic model well predicted methane conversion and products yield in different operating conditions. By employing the kinetic model and path flux analysis module the kinetic effects of low temperature non-equilibrium plasma assisted CH4 steam reforming on the methane conversion was studied without catalyst. The results showed that CH3 recombination was the limiting reaction for CO production; meantime O was the critical species for CO production. By adding Ni catalyst can reduce methyl recombination and promote hydroxyl into oxygen, which is beneficial to heat recovery. The proposed research ensures the effect laws and characters of MSR by plasma, and contribute to improve the objective products concentration and furthermore the energy efficiency.Copyright © 2013 by ASME