Synthesis of hydrogen gas by thermal decomposition of methane gas with carbon sequestration

Hydrogen gas synthesis by the thermal decomposition of methane gas in a non-transferred arc thermal plasma reactor is studied. A thermodynamic study was carried out obtaining free energy minimization plots for the C‐H‐N and C‐H‐N‐Si systems by using the CSIRO thermo package. Nitrogen gas was used as an ionizing gas and metallic silicon fine powder was injected to promote the in fly silicon carbide nucleation. The effect of current intensity on the thermal decomposition of methane was studied. The degree of methane gas decomposition was in the range 84‐97%. The fine solid product collected was characterized using the XRD and MEB-EDAX methods. Elemental carbon particles as well as silicon carbide particles in the nanometric range were identified by the last technique.