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Hydrogen production from methane in a dielectric barrier discharge

using oxide zinc and chromium as catalyst

Shortened title: H2 production from CH4 in a DBD with Zn-Cr oxide catalyst

Antonius Indarto1,*

1
Clean Technology Research Center, Korea Institute of Science and Technology,

PO Box 131, Cheongryang, Seoul, Korea

1
Address: Plasma-Catalyst Process Laboratory, Korea Institute of Science & Technology,
P.O. Box 131, Cheongryang, Seoul 130-650, Korea
Phone: +82-10-2296-3748
Email: indarto_antonius@yahoo.com

2
Abstract- The hydrogen fuel cell is a promising option as a future energy resource;
however, the nature of the gas is such that the conversion process of other fuels to
hydrogen on board is necessary. Among the raw fuel resources, methane could be the
best candidate as it is plentiful. In this experiment, the possibility of producing
hydrogen with less carbon formation from methane by a dielectric barrier discharge
(DBD) was investigated. Without the addition of a catalyst, the formation of hydrogen
reached between 30% and 35% at methane residence time of 0.22 min and supplied
powers in the range of 60W to 130W. The hydrogen selectivity increased at higher
supplied power, but the process efficiency, defined as a ratio of the produced
hydrogen to the supplied power, decreased slightly. In order to boost the hydrogen
production with less carbon formation, a mixed oxide catalyst of zinc and chromium
was added to the reactor. It was shown that the production of hydrogen was ca. 40%
higher than the non catalytic plasma process.

Keywords: Plasma, dielectric barrier discharge, methane, hydrogen production

3
1. Introduction
The development of fuel-efficient engines that produce fewer pollutants has
been a major objective for many years. Regulatory requirements have been and will
be of major importance in defining the standards (Cooper, 1994). Increasingly
stringent legislation directs attention at factors that reduce polluting emissions, such
as a cold-start process and lowering sulfur levels in fuel (Matsumoto, 2000). Among
many selective compound candidates, hydrogen and methanol have been considered
as green fuel starting materials. Compared to a hydrogen-based process, the kinetics
of methanol conversion was relatively slower and catalyst deactivation occurred
simultaneously. As a result, hydrogen is preferred (Cameron, 1999; Ralph and Hards,
1998; Hoogers and Thompsett, 1999), but presents obvious problems with generation,
storage, and distribution of the gas. Pressurized vessels or metal hydrides of hydrogen
in a vehicle are relatively dangerous because hydrogen is categorized as a highly
flammable material.
Currently, attention has been focused on the design and operation of compact
and efficient devices designed to generate hydrogen on board a vehicle. Jamal and
Wyszynski (1994) reviewed many possible onboard hydrogen generators and the
alternative fuels for spark ignition engines. Hydrogen production from methane (CH4)
and methanol has attracted the consideration of many experts. Although methanol has
more advantages than methane, e.g. easier storage and safety, along with the by-
product of carbon monoxide being annoying for both environmental and human
health (Velu et al., 1999; Liu et al., 2004). On the other hand, nowadays, methane for
fuel is gaining popularity and widespread use, especially in the transportation sector.
In order to produce hydrogen from methane, a methane cracking process is
necessary. However, the conventional thermal method requires a high temperature
condition to achieve high methane conversion (Indarto et al., 2006a) and can be very
costly for the onboard process. In particular, decomposition of methane using plasma
could be a candidate for this purpose as the existence of high-energy electrons were
able to decompose methane conversion at lower temperature. Yao et al. (2001)
investigated the methane conversion using non-thermal plasma and showed that the
methane conversion could be dramatically improved through this method.
As high hydrogen production is the goal of the process, process modification,
e.g. by the addition of a catalyst, is necessary to change the nature of the product
distribution. In thermal-based processes, the catalytic conversion of methane to
hydrogen is usually carried out by the catalyst of Ni or Pt (Peña et al., 1996; Twigg,
1989; Rostrup-Nielsen, 1984). Our previous research using Pt/γ-Al2O3 catalyst to
convert CH4 in a DBD showed a negative effect on the production of hydrogen, as
higher hydrocarbon transformation was the more dominant phenomena (Kim et al.,

4
2004). Better results employing Ru and Rh catalysts were obtained in a catalytic
thermal process (Rostrup-Nielsen and Hanses, 1993). That result was supported by
our investigation that Ru and Rh were also active metal catalysts for converting
methane to hydrogen in a non-thermal plasma (Indarto et. al., 2007), but, as the price
in the market is relatively expensive, this material has been rarely used in the industry.
Bridger et al. (1970) developed a relatively cheaper mixture catalyst based on
Zn and Cr oxide metal for hydrogen production. Using a mixture of CH4 and CO2 as
the reactants, the production of hydrogen yielded 35% at a relatively low temperature
(ca. 100oC). Davis et al. (1976) thoroughly investigated the activity of Zn catalyst for
H2 production. Recent experiments by Liu et al. (2004) showed that the existence of
ZnO-based catalyst increased the production of hydrogen from methanol. The activity
of ZnO-Cr2O3 catalyst at low temperature condition has been investigated by Ohta et
al. (2004) for the dehydrogenation of isobutane. However, no publication was found
for the use of mixed oxide of Zn-Cr catalyst for methane conversion to produce
hydrogen both by thermal and plasma methods.
In this research, the direct methane conversion to hydrogen was investigated
using a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD). DBD is a widely used plasma technique
for many applications because it is an easily installed and low-cost of operation
instrument. In accordance with the above discussion, a catalyst based on Zn and Cr
oxide metal was made and employed in order to boost the production of hydrogen. In
order to increase the lifetime of the catalyst, the research would like to suppress the
production of carbon. The deposition of carbon by covering the surface of catalyst is a
major reason of the catalyst deactivation (Venugopal et al., 2007).

2. Experimental setup

Figure 1

The schematic diagram of the experimental setup is shown in Fig. 1. The


reactor was a quartz tube with an inside diameter of 6 mm and length of 20 cm. A thin
silver film, serving as the outer electrode, coated the outer wall of the reactor. The
inner electrode was two stainless wires (∅ = 0.2 mm) located in the center of the
reactor. The plasma was generated by a high-voltage alternating current (AC)
generator (Auto electric, model A1831) that has maximum voltage of 10.0 kV and
maximum frequency of 20 kHz. In this experiment, the power frequency was
maintained fixed at 20 kHz, while the output supplied power to the reactor was
manipulated by varying the voltages and currents. The measurement of applied power
was done by a watt-meter (Metex, model M-3860M).
All experiments were carried out under atmospheric pressure and ambient

5
temperature. The flow rates of methane gas were controlled by a mass flow controller.
The output of the reactor was connected to a gas chromatograph (YoungLin model
M600D, column: 30 ft of Hayesep D) equipped with two detectors (thermal
conductivity and flame ionized detector). Considering the volume expansion and/or
compression of the product stream, the flow difference between the input and output
line was measured by a bubble flow meter (Hewlett Packard) referring to the
condition before and after plasma reaction. The formulation of methane conversion
and product selectivity follows:
moles of CH 4 converted
Conversion of CH 4 = × 100 (1)
moles of initial CH 4
n moles of C m H n produced
Selectivity of C m H n = × × 100 (2)
2 moles of CH 4 converted
The atom balance of carbon and hydrogen was calculated in each experiment to gain
the quantitative satisfaction detection of products by our analysis instruments.
In order to increase the production of hydrogen, a mixed oxide catalyst of
zinc (Zn) and chromium (Cr) was added on the plasma system. The catalyst was made
by liquid mixing of Zn(NO3)2.6H2O and Cr(NO3)3.9H2O precursor with distillated
water. The detailed procedure of the catalyst preparation was described clearly in the
patent paper of Bridger et al. (1970). Before it was used, the dried gel catalyst was
crushed and sieved until it reached uniform size of ca. 60-90 mesh. The fresh catalyst
was then calcined at 300oC for 2hr in atmospheric air. The XRD spectrum of the
catalyst after the calcinations is presented in Fig. 2, which shows the dominant ZnO
and ZnCr2O4 crystal phase. Simard et al. (1995) mentioned that those two phases were
more active compared to single ZnC2O4 or Cr2O3 for the transformation of synthetic
gas. Those crystal phases could be active for the case of H2 production from methane.
Only 0.5 gram of catalyst was added in the reactor and put ~1.5-2 cm before the end
of the plasma zone in order to avoid the product’s decomposition by plasma. In this
experiment, the catalyst treatments, e.g. calcinations and regeneration, were used as
the variable to investigate the activity of the catalyst and its durability.

3. Results and discussion


3.1. Non-catalytic plasma reaction
The conversion of methane using non-thermal plasma devices, especially
dielectric barrier discharge (DBD), has been commonly used. Numerous reports and
papers have been published with differing results and conclusions as many aspects
and variables exist in a DBD (Yao et al., 2001; Yang, 2003; Kim et al., 2004; Indarto
et al., 2005; 2006a; 2006b). Although plasma reaction is known as one of the most
difficult reactions to determine the kinetics, the tendency to follow a certain pattern

6
could be studied (Indarto et al., 2007a). The pathway pattern can easily change under
different conditions as the reactions are very sensitive to the population of active
species, ions, and electrons. This is the reason the optimization of the parameters is
necessary to obtain the optimum conditions for the best results.
Figure 3

Supplied power from an electrical generator to the reactor is one of the most
important parameters in the plasma chemical reaction to activate or decompose the
methane molecule. The magnitude of the external supplied power is related to the
intensity of the internal electric field inside the reactor. An increase of power could
produce more energy to activate molecules to higher energy levels and result in more
energetic electrons. In this condition, the possibility of breaking the C-H bond in the
molecule of methane could be initiated. Figure 3 shows the effect of supplied power
variation on the methane conversion and product selectivity at the fixed input flow
rate of 15 ml/min or residence time of 0.6 min. Methane conversion was raised from
30% to 45% when the power was increased from 60 W to 130 W. It can be deduced,
trivially, that supplying more energy will increase the molecules’ instability inside the
reactor and cause more conversion of methane. Increasing energy will also increase
the density of electron and radical species inside the plasma zone.
The gaseous products of non-catalytic plasma of methane conversion were
dominated by H2, C2 (mostly C2H6), C3, and small amount of C4H10. Liquid product
was not detected in all ranges of experiment, and a small amount of solid carbon was
found deposited on the reactor wall and the surface of inner electrodes. The
production of hydrogen was relatively stable in the range between 30% and 35%.
Figure 3b shows that the maximum production of C3 hydrocarbons occurred at a
supplied power of 90 W or at the minimum C4 hydrocarbon production. On the other
hand, production of C4 reached the highest value at higher supplied power (130 W)
and suppressed the production of C3. Similar to the trend of H2, the production of C2
compounds was not affected much by supplied power variation. A previous paper by
Kim et al. (2004) reported the similar situations when methane was treated by a DBD.

Figure 4

The effect of the residence time of methane in the reactor was also examined.
Figure 4 shows the results on methane conversion (Fig. 4a) and the selectivity of
products (Fig. 4b) vs. residence time variation at a fixed supplied power of 80W.
Different from the previous parameter, the effect of residence time gives more clear
results in terms of product distribution. Methane conversion was significantly
increased with an increase in residence time, as shown in Fig. 4a. Longer periods of
methane inside the reactor will create more opportunities for methane molecules to

7
collide with other energetic species, e.g. electrons or radicals.
Figure 4b shows that the production of H2 was clearly increased when the
residence time was increased. As the production of H2 increased, it reduced the
selectivity of other products containing an H atom in their molecules. Our previous
research on gliding arc plasma also produced the similar results (Indarto et al., 2005;
2006b). At a longer residence time, produced higher hydrocarbon (CxHy) from adduct
reactions will be easily decomposed in the presence of a single atom of hydrogen and
transform into hydrogen molecules (H2) and other molecules (CxHy-1) by a
dehydrogenation reaction. Ab-initio1 calculation of Gibbs energy (ΔGT=298K) shows the
products of dehydrogenation reactions are more stable than the reactants, which
means that H2 production is preferable. Figure 5 shows the Gibbs energy diagram of
dehydrogenation reactions sequence occurring in C2 hydrocarbons. Although, at
longer residence times, the selectivity of hydrogen reaches the highest value, the
power efficiency to H2 production (calculated as ratio of H2 production to the total
supplied power) decreased. In this condition, the process could be said to be not very
efficient and rather costly to apply.
The maximum selectivity of C2 and C3 hydrocarbons was 35% and 20%
respectively, both occurring at a residence time of 0.22 min. Under similar conditions,
the production of C4 also reached maximum ~15% total selectivity. At a very short
residence time, it showed that the probability of higher hydrocarbon formation was
greater and that the dehydrogenation reactions could be avoided. Eliasson et al.
(2000) reported that methane chain reaction could occur following:
•CH3 + •CH3 → C2H6 (3)
C2H6 + e → •C2H5 + •H + e (4)
•C2H5 + •C2H5 → C4H10 (5)
As all of the above reactions have almost zero reaction energy barriers (~0 kcal/mol),
a longer residence time is not necessary to form higher hydrocarbons. Moreover, the
longer the higher hydrocarbons stay in the plasma zone, the greater the probability of
being attacked by hydrogen or electrons.

3.2. Plasma with oxide of Zn and Cr catalyst

Figure 6
The use of a catalyst is necessary in order to control the chemical reactions of
plasma and increase the product yield. Some papers have reported some results
related to the use of catalysts (usually metal oxide catalyst) for hydrogen production.
Most authors preferred Pt, Ru, and Rh catalysts, owing to their good activity and
stability. Meanwhile, Ni-based catalysts are commercially more interesting but suffer
1 Ab-inito calculation was done by using Gaussian 03 software (Frisch et al., 2004) with DFT
(UB3LYP) method and basis set of 6-31G(d).

8
the disadvantage of a high rate of deactivation. Moreover, exploration to find the best
catalyst is still challenging, especially as far as the perspective of reasonable price and
good availability. In this experiment, a catalyst based on Zn and Cr oxide will be used
combined with plasma to convert methane and produce H2 as the product. Low
production of carbon is also necessary to prevent the catalyst from fast deactivation.
In order to find the best region where the catalyst was able to show the
activity significantly, we did a set of ‘screening’ experiments. As the reaction
temperature was relatively low (ca. room temperature), some catalysts did not show
any activity (Indarto et al., 2007b). In this case, increasing the supplied power to
increase the density of active species could be a way of activating the surface property
of the catalyst.
At relatively low supplied powers or higher input flow rates, the product
distribution was not much different compared to the distribution from the non-
catalytic plasma process. The existence of radicals and/or ions from methane
fragmentation was low due to the low conversion of methane. The optimal point of
hydrogen production occurred at a flow rate of 30 ml/min and power of 80 W.
Before the catalyst was used, we treated it with two different activation
methods. The first catalyst was calcined at 300oC using atmospheric air for 2 h, noted
as 1a, and the second one was not calcined, noted as 3a. After around 2 hours and 40
minutes operation, all catalysts were taken out of the reactor and dried for one night to
remove any possible moisture (probably liquid hydrocarbons) attached to the surface
of the catalyst. The dried catalysts were then re-used for the similar experiment. They
were noted as 1b (for the catalyst coming from 1a) and 3b (for the dried catalyst
coming from 3a). However, a half portion of the dried catalyst from 1b was
reactivated by calcination at 300oC for 2 h, noted as 2a. After 2a was used in the
experiment for around 2 hr and 40 min, the catalyst was then dried for one night and
used again for the similar plasma reaction, and noted as 2b. This method is proposed
to know the effect of the calcinations to the catalyst activity and to investigate the
durability of the catalyst, i.e. whether or not it is re-useable.
As shown in Figures 6a-b, the existence of the catalyst, especially the
calcined catalyst, increased the conversion of methane. The methane conversion of the
catalytic plasma process was higher ~50% than non-catalytic plasma process at the
beginning of the operation but decreased slightly as the operating time increased (1a).
We found that the catalyst began losing its activity after around 8hr of operation. After
that time, the H2 selectivity and methane conversion were similar to the non-catalytic
plasma process. Figure 6a shows that the activity the catalyst could not be regenerated
by only by drying the catalyst, as the conversion of methane was similar to the non-
catalytic plasma process but it could slightly recover the activity of H2 selectivity.

9
This means that the moisture or liquids which possibly existed on the surface were not
affecting the catalyst activity or that the moisture or liquid was not present during the
process. However, the catalytic activity significantly reappeared when the used
catalyst was recalcined. The activity of 2a catalyst was nearly similar to the activity of
the 1a catalyst for both methane conversion and H2 selectivity. It is good news that the
catalyst can be re-used with almost similar activity by re-calcination. It is necessary to
calcine the catalyst to oxidize the adsorbed carbon by oxygen. Moreover, in another
point of view, the calcination could be an important factor, as shown by the different
trend of 1a (catalyst with calcinations) and 3a (catalyst without calcinations). The
activity of uncalcined catalyst was shown to be very low as compared to the calcined
catalyst, and this could refer to the crystal phases present in the catalyst. The effect of
re-calcination on the activity of converting methane is still being studied further by
analyzing the XRD, TEM, and SEM picture.
The above phenomenon also occurred for the H2 selectivity. The addition of
the catalyst increased the H2 selectivity ~40% for the first time operation of the
catalyst. Different from the catalyst activity in the methane conversion, the selectivity
of H2 production was relatively stable both for 1a and 2a catalyst. For the 3a catalyst,
the H2 selectivity was also stable but in lower values (ca. 30%). After the first hour of
operation of the “b” catalyst (both 1b and 2b), the production of H2 was slightly lower
than the “a” catalyst (i.e. 1a and 2a), and the production decreased rapidly after 2h
operation with the “b” catalyst. The interesting point, similar to the case of methane
conversion, is the catalyst activity can be regenerated by calcination.
One can conclude that the catalytic plasma process is more efficient as
compared to the non-catalytic process for H2 production as the catalytic plasma
process produces higher H2 when compared to the non-catalytic process at similar
supplied power to the reactor. However, Ohta et al. (2004) and Venugopal et al.
(2007) mentioned the problem of the ZnO-Cr2O3 catalyst being easily deactivated by
coke deposition. In the plasma process, nano-sized carbon can be formed in non-
thermal plasma by methane fragmentation (Indarto, 2006c). Calcination of the catalyst
using air could remove the carbon by oxidizing it to form CO or CO2.
Other hydrocarbon product selectivity is shown in Fig. 6c. The phenomenon
is similar to the case of residence time effect in non-catalytic experiments. When the
H2 selectivity rose, it sacrificed the other hydrocarbon products by suppressing their
selectivity. It is proposed that the existence of a catalyst will ease the H 2 production
reactions, by adsorbing hydrogen produced from dehydrogenation of hydrocarbons
(shown in Fig. 5). Although it is still ambiguous, the existence of Cr on the surface of
catalyst seemed able to affect the kinetics of the H2 reaction (Kato et al., 2006). This
finding also mentioned that Cr could adsorb more hydrogen atoms than Co and Ni and

10
possibly perform H2 formation on the surface of the catalyst. Higher distributed Cr,
acting as active site, would increase the production of H2, and ZnO could disperse the
Cr during the catalyst formation (Thomas and Thomas, 2006).

4. Conclusions

The production of hydrogen from methane by a dielectric barrier discharge


with mixed oxide catalyst of zinc and chromium was investigated. Non-catalytic
plasma reactions resulted in hydrogen with selectivity of ca. 30-35%. The selectivity
of hydrogen increased with increasing the power supplied to the reactor. The addition
of calcined mixed Zn-Cr oxide catalyst increased the hydrogen production 40%
higher than the non-catalytic reaction. The existence of a catalyst also increased the
methane conversion, but the conversion decreased slightly over a longer operation
time. Carbon deposition could be proposed as the main reason for catalyst
deactivation, but catalyst activity can be regenerated by catalyst recalcination.

Acknowledgments
The first author thanks to the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) and
the Korea University (KU) for the financial of the study. The first author also would
like to express his appreciation to the Università degli studi di Torino for the support
during study period in Turin, Italy.

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14
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15
M e th a n e AC
M FC g e n e ra to r

p la s m a
zone
B u b b le flo w
m e te r
c a ta ly s t

R e a c to r G as
C h ro m a to g ra p h y

Figure 1. Experimental setup

16
ZnO
Z n C r2O 4
C r2O 3

Figure 2. XRD spectra of calcined catalyst

17
70

60

50
Conversion (%)
40

30

20

10

0
60 80 100 120 140
S u p p lie d p o w e r ( W )
(a)

1.0

0.8 unkno w n
n - C 4H 10
Selectivity

0.6 i- C 4 H 1 0
C3
0.4 C 2H 6
C 2H 2 + C 2H 2
0.2 H2

0.0
60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130
S u p p lie d p o w e r ( W )

(b)

Figure 3. Effects of supplied power variation on


(a) methane conversion and (b) products distribution

18
100

80

Conversion (%)
60

40

20

0
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8

R e s id e n c e t im e ( m in )

(a)

1 .0

0 .8
Selectivity

0 .6
unknow n
0 .4 C4
C3
0 .2
C 2
H 2

0 .0
0 .3 0 .5 0 .7 0 .9 1 .1 1 .3 1 .5 1 .7 1 .9

R e s id e n c e t im e ( m in )

(b)

Figure 4. Effects of methane residence time on


(a) methane conversion and (b) products distribution

19
20
C 2H 6
+ H --> C 2H 5
+ H 2
0

∆G (kcal/mol) - 20
C 2H 5 + H --> C 2H 4 + H 2
- 40

- 60 C 2H 4 + H --> C 2H 3 + H 2

- 80

- 100 C 2H 3 + H --> C 2H 2 + H 2

- 120

- 140

Figure 5. The Gibbs energy different (ΔG) profile of dehydrogenation of


C2 hydrocarbons in the present of hydrogen atom

20
60

50
H2 selectivity (%)
40

b la n k
30

1a
20 1b
2a
2b
10 3a
3b

0
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
S a m p lin g tim e ( m in .)

(a)

60

50
CH4 conversion (%)

40

30 b la n k

1a
20 1b
2a
2b
10 3a
3b

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180
S a m p l in g t im e ( m in . )

(b)

21
30

25

Selectivity (%)
20 C 2H 6

15
C 3
C 2H 2
+ C 2H 4
10

5
i- C 4 H 10
+ n -C 4H 10
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
S a m p l in g t im e ( m in . )

(c)

Figure 6. Effect of the catalyst on (a) methane conversion, (b) hydrogen selectivity,
and (c) hydrocarbon selectivity. Data was obtained at gas flow rate of 30ml/min and
supplied power of 80W.

22

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