Oxidative methane conversion in dielectric barrier discharge

A dielectric barrier discharge was used for the oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) with oxygen at the pressure of 1.2 bar. A dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor was powered at the frequency of about 6 kHz. Molar ratio CH4/O2 in the inlet gas containing 50% or 25% of argon was 3, 6 and 12. The effects of temperature (110, 150 and 340 ◦C), gas flow rate, molar ratio of methane to oxygen on the overall methane and oxygen conversion and methane conversion to methanol, ethanol, hydrocarbons, carbon oxides and water were studied. In the studied system the increase of the temperature decreases the conversion of methane to methanol. The increase of the molar ratio of methane to oxygen increased the methane conversion to hydrocarbons and strongly decreased the methane conversion to alcohols. The conversion of methane to hydrocarbons increased and the conversion of methane to methanol decreased with the decrease of the gas flow rate from 2 to 1 NL/h.