Studying barrier-discharge-stimulated plasmachemical reactions

Barrier-discharge stimulation of chemical reactions has been studied in the case of methane oxidation by atmospheric oxygen with the formation of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Experiments in a plasmachemical reactor demonstrated the possibility of increasing the yield of synthesis gas (syngas) by means of plasma pretreatment of the initial mixture of air and methane in a 7 : 1 ratio at atmospheric pressure. The output-gas composition was determined by gas chromatography. It is established that the plasma-discharge treatment of the initial gas mixture leads to a 15% increase in the amount of syngas at the reactor output and increases the reaction selectivity with respect to hydrogen and carbon monoxide by 3.2 and 6.5%, respectively.