Development and Testing of a Prototype Microwave Plasma Reactor for Hydrogen Recovery from Sabatier Waste Methane

2009-01-2467

07/12/2009

Event
International Conference On Environmental Systems
Authors Abstract
Content
In the Sabatier reactor, oxygen is recovered (as water) by hydrogenation of carbon dioxide. One half of the reacted hydrogen is contained within the product water, the other half is used to form methane (CH4). Hydrogen resupply requirements for the oxygen recovery process can be minimized by reclamation of hydrogen from the methane waste. To this end, we have developed effective methods for the recovery of hydrogen from CH4 using a microwave plasma reactor. By selectively promoting the oligomerization reaction which forms hydrogen and acetylene, up to 75% of the waste hydrogen can be recovered in a manner which minimizes the carbon fouling and carbon build-up problems which drastically reduce the long-term viability of traditional methane pyrolysis methods using fixed bed and fluidized bed reactors. This paper describes the development and testing of the prototype microwave plasma reactor which represents the first generation of a novel and innovative technology for hydrogen recovery from Sabatier waste.
Meta TagsDetails
DOI
https://doi.org/10.4271/2009-01-2467
Pages
14
Citation
Atwater, J., Wheeler, R., Hadley, N., Dahl, R. et al., "Development and Testing of a Prototype Microwave Plasma Reactor for Hydrogen Recovery from Sabatier Waste Methane," SAE Technical Paper 2009-01-2467, 2009, https://doi.org/10.4271/2009-01-2467.
Additional Details
Publisher
Published
Jul 12, 2009
Product Code
2009-01-2467
Content Type
Technical Paper
Language
English