Steam reforming of CO2-containing natural gas with partial oxidation on Ni catalysts in corona discharge for synthesis gas production

Abstract

The objective of this work was to investigate a direct production of synthesis gas from a CO2-containing natural gas by steam reforming with partial oxidation on Ni catalysts in a corona discharge environment. The simulated natural gas contained 70 %methane, 5 %ethane, 5 %propane and 20 %carbon dioxide and a ratio of feed hydrocarbons to oxygen was fixed at 2:1. Under the optimum conditions (an input voltage of 15 kV, a frequency of 300 Hz and a total feed flow rate of 75 cm3/min), the main product was synthesis gas with some other products of C2H4, C3H6 and C4H10. An addition of steam at the optimum steam content 15 of mol%, the reactant conversions increased with a decrease of power consumption. The presence of 5 wt% Ni/Al2O3 catalyst enhanced a methane conversion from 27 to 37% whereas the synthesis gas selectivity slightly increased but other product selectivities decreased.