Catalytic Reaction Assisted by Plasma or Electric Field

Abstract

Direct conversion of methane, other hydrocarbons, and alcohol at lower temperatures can be achieved using plasma or an electric field and catalysts. Non-equilibrium plasma enables activation of stable molecules including methane, carbon dioxide, and water, even at low temperatures, by virtue of high electron energy. Use of a hybrid system of plasma and catalyst provided high conversion and selectivity to products by virtue of adsorption on the catalyst. Imposing a DC electric field to the catalyst bed also promotes catalytic reactions, even at low temperatures. Two mechanisms for electro-catalytic reactions are proposed for the DC electric field imposition: reactant activation by surface protonics and production of active surface oxygen species on the catalyst. This review presents summaries of these novel processes.

Trace mono-atomically dispersed rhodium on zeolite-supported cobalt catalyst for the efficient methane oxidation

“…T he conversion of methane to liquid fuels and chemicals by heterogeneous catalysis has attracted increased interest since the shale gas revolution, due to the enhanced availability of methane and increasing global demands of power sources [1][2][3][4] . Methane-derived chemicals such as hydrocarbons and methanol are manufactured via syngas, a mixture of CO and H 2 .…”

Low Temperature Hydrogen Production by Ethanol Steam Reforming over Supported Metal Catalysts in an Electric Field

“…Imposing a higher current caused higher enthalpy gain (ΔHr). Energy efficiency ( ΔHr/(input power)) was also increased concomitantly with increasing applied current because the reaction was promoted not only electrochemically but also catalytically in this reaction system 28) . Energy efficiency of the reaction using 9 mA current reached 13.4 %, although further improvement is necessary to recover the energy of low-grade waste heat.…”

“…4), it is necessary to input energy into the system to lower the reaction temperature below 473 K (ΔG 0). To overcome that issue, we have proposed "electrocatalytic reaction in a direct current (DC) electric field" as a novel low-temperature catalytic reaction system 28) . We have succeeded in facilitating various endothermic catalytic reactions such as steam reforming 28) 35) , dry reforming 36), 37) , and dehydrogenation 38) , even at low temperatures below 473 K by applying an electric field to the catalyst bed.…”

Conversion of methane to C2 and C3 hydrocarbons over TiO2/ZSM-5 core–shell particles in an electric field

“…23 Sekine and coworkers recently reported a Ce-W-O catalyst derived from CeO 2 modied with Ce 2 (WO 4 ) 3 polyoxometalate, which exhibited high OCM activity due to a synergetic effect between the Ce 2 (WO 4 ) 3 structure and the electric eld to produce the reactive oxygen species for the selective oxidation of CH 4 . [24][25][26] The CePO 4 nanorods with uniform surface Ce sites could work as a durable catalyst and showed the highest C 2 yield of 18% in an electric eld without the need for external heating. 27 More recently, McEwen and co-workers have reviewed some of the theoretical methods that have been used to elucidate the inuence of external electric elds on catalytic reactions, as well as the application of such methods to selective methane activation.…”