Iranian Researcher Presents New Method to Increase Efficiency of Methane Conversion

Today, methane combustion gives rise to the tremendous release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Finding an efficient method to convert methane into value-added compounds has attracted significant attention, along with mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.

In this research, the spark discharge-assisted laser-induced plasma (SD-LIP) was investigated in conjunction with the palladium (Pd) catalyst. In the proposed electro-photocatalyst reactor, a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser with a pulse duration of 10 ns- 120 mJ/pulse is utilized to ignite the spark discharge.

“In this project, it was proposed to use laser induced plasma along with the common method of spark discharge in the presence of palladium catalyst to increase and improve the efficiency of methane to hydrogen conversion. For this purpose, various types of tests and experiments were conducted to check the efficiency of this system, the results of which clearly confirm the improvement of efficiency and increase of conversion efficiency in this proposed system,” said Ahmadi Nouri.

Laser irradiation plays a pivotal role in inducing electric breakdown by injecting electrons and Pd nanoparticles into the electrode gap at atmospheric pressure.

The results indicated that the electron density increases against the traditional spark discharge method. The breakdown voltage notably decreases due to the inverse Bremsstrahlung (IB) phenomenon, reducing specific energy input (SEI). Consequently, energy conversion efficiency (ECE) improves by 14 % having a very low SEI, ranging from 1 to 3 kJ/L. Furthermore, the novel reactor design of SD-LIP reveals the creation of heavier hydrocarbons (Iso-butane) in favor of slight coke formation. Laser decarbonization slows down catalytic deactivation through successive shots.

In fact, SD-LIP gives rise to high efficiency in the methane conversion to hydrogen, where high carbon balance preservation (>97 %) is realized.

4155/v