Hydrocarbon plasma reforming through intermittent spark discharges

High d.c. voltage discharges in air/CH4 mixtures at atmospheric pressure are experimentally studied in order to obtain the production of hydrogen enriched gas flows. This is aimed to investigate the possibility of a plasma hydrogen reforming process. The characteristics of the discharges, which happen as intermittent sparks, have been studied as a function of the operating parameters, such as the air/methane ratio, the flowrate and the electrical power. An encouraging yield of hydrogen and the capability of sparks to reach a high conversion efficiency of methane are revealed by the analysis of the composition of the exhaust gas, though several improvements are badly needed before to have a viable plasma reformer