Non-thermal plasma enhanced dry reforming of CH4 with CO2 over activated carbon supported Ni catalysts

Abstract In this paper, the dry reforming of methane and carbon dioxide (DRM) under plasma assisted with nickel (Ni)/activated carbon (AC) catalyst was investigated. In order to determine the synergistic effect of plasma and catalyst, DRM under plasma without catalyst, catalyst alone, and plasma assisted with catalyst was separately studied. The experimental results demonstrated that the highest catalytic activity was achieved when DRM was run under plasma combined with Ni/AC catalyst, and carbon dioxide (64.6%) and methane (65.7%) conversion, as well as the yield of hydrogen (27.9%), carbon monoxide (32.5%) were obtained. Moreover, the AC reduced at 700 °C was regard as the optimum support for DRM, NiC 700 under plasma condition exhibited the best performance of DRM ascribed to its mesopores structure, higher specific surface area, and stronger metal-support interaction (SMSI) between Ni and AC support.