SMuK 2021 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

P: Fachverband Plasmaphysik

P 3: Atmospheric Pressure Plasmas and their Applications I

P 3.4: Talk

Monday, August 30, 2021, 17:30–17:45, H6

Spectroscopical analysis of an atmospheric pressure argon methane microwave plasma for methane pyrolysis — •Simon Kreuznacht, Marc Böke, and Achim von Keudell — Experimental Physics II, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany

Recently, the climate friendly and energy efficient production of hydrogen has gained a lot of interest. Today, hydrogen is used as an important precursor in the chemical industry, but hydrogen may also serve as energy carrier, for energy storage, or as climate friendly fuel in the future. Usually, hydrogen is produced by steam reforming of methane. However, this process produces a lot of CO₂ (9 t per ton of hydrogen). Methane pyrolysis in a microwave plasma, as an oxygen free technology, is a promising production method of hydrogen without the emission of greenhouse gases.

Here, we present a detailed spectroscopic analysis of an argon methane microwave plasma based on the evaluation of high resolution dicarbon emission spectra. The dicarbon rotational temperature deduced from these spectra can be used to estimate the space resolved gas temperature. The product gas stream was monitored using an online gas analyser at the same time. Since the gas temperature heavily influences the chemistry in the plasma, the space resolved determination of the gas temperature can be used to tune the microwave plasma methane pyrolysis for optimal conversion and energy efficiency.