Effect of gas pressure and pulse duration on dry reforming of methane in nanosecond spark discharge

Abstract

This paper presents the results of experiments on dry reforming of methane under the action of a nanosecond spark discharge at medium pressures up to 5 atm. High-voltage pulse generators with pulse length of 1 to 15 ns and voltage pulse amplitude of 50 to 200 kV were used to power the discharge. It was demonstrated that the spark discharge efficiency significantly exceeds the corona and diffuse discharge efficiency. With increasing pressure, the methane conversion value decreases, and the specific energy consumption increases. As the pulse length increases, the conversion value increases due to the increase in the energy deposition in the gas. The lowest energy consumption for the conversion of a methane molecule was 20 eV per molecule at pressure of 1 atm and discharge pulse length of 15 ns.