Greenhouse Gases Reforming and Hydrogen Upgrading by Using Warm Plasma Technology

Global warming is an alarming problem with adverse impact on climate change. Carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) have been identified as the most significant greenhouse gases (GHG) normally arising from anthropogenic activities; therefore, promising treatment technologies are developing all over the world to resolve this problem. The warm plasma is an emergent process with low specific energy requirement capable to reach high temperature to produce excited species and support subsequent chemical reactions. Consequently, warm plasma reactors can be accomplished with simple structure reactors having high gas flow rates and treatment capacity. Plasma interaction with GHG leads into a molecular dissociation, mainly forming CO and H2, also known as syngas, which represents an alternative energy source with innovative applications in microturbines and fuel cells, among other emerging applications. The process here explained assures a significant reduction in CO2 emission and H2 yield upgrading. The reforming experimental results by using two warm plasma reactors are connected in series to improve the syngas yield. This alternative represents a great possibility for CO2 conversion.