Plasma catalytic oxidation of methane on alumina-supported noble metal catalysts

The methane oxidation reaction was studied as a function of temperature for a gas mixture representative of a combined heat power (CHP) within a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor. The effect of energy deposition was studied, with energy deposition ranging from 36 to 58 J L−1, to maintain a low NOx formation at high temperature. In the current study, we also investigated the combined process of a dielectric barrier discharge and γ-alumina noble metal catalysts such as platinum and palladium. In order to separate the catalytic effects from the plasma activation, the work included both purely catalytic and plasma activation processes using a complete CHP mixture with 4% of water in the feed. It was found that the presence of water leads to increase the methane conversion in purely plasma activation processes. Moreover, a higher efficiency for methane oxidation in CHP conditions was observed with the plasma–Pd(X)/Al2O3 systems.