KR20060018195A - Carbon Dioxide Reforming of Methane Using Electromagnetic Plasma Torch - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) reforming method of methane (CH ₄ ) for synthesizing hydrogen (H ₂ ) and carbon monoxide (CO) using an electromagnetic plasma torch, and more specifically, in a certain volume ratio of methane and It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of decomposing methane and carbon dioxide by passing carbon dioxide into a 1 atm electromagnetic plasma torch and synthesizing hydrogen and carbon monoxide through a plasma chemical reaction.

And the present invention to achieve the above object is a magnetron 10 for oscillating a typical 2.45 GHz electromagnetic wave; A power supply device 20 for supplying power to the magnetron 10; A circulator 30 which completely absorbs the reflected waves reflected by the magnetron 10 to protect the magnetron 10 and outputs electromagnetic waves oscillated from the magnetron 10; A directional coupler 40 for monitoring the magnitudes of incident and reflected waves and outputting electromagnetic waves transmitted through the circulator 30; A 3-stub tuner 50 for impedance matching against electromagnetic waves input from the directional coupler 40; A reactor 80 in which a plasma is generated by the electromagnetic wave transmitted through the 3-stub tuner 50 and the vortex gas injected from the outside, and the plasma reforming reaction occurs; A gas supply unit 60 for injecting vortex gas stabilizing the plasma into the reactor 80 and source gas required for the plasma reforming reaction; And a gas collector 70 in which the gases synthesized from the reactor 80 are collected.

Plasma, electromagnetic waves, methane, carbon dioxide, hydrogen

Description

CO2 Reforming Method of Methane Using Electromagnetic Plasma Torch {METHOD FOR CARBON DIOXIDE REFORMING OF METHANE USING MICROWAVE PLASMA TORCH}

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The following detailed description may make the invention easier to understand by reference to the listed schemes.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a carbon dioxide reforming apparatus of methane using an electromagnetic plasma torch according to the present invention;

2 is a cross-sectional view of the reactor indicated by reference numeral 100 of FIG. 1,

3 is an infrared spectrometer spectrum of measuring the amount of methane and carbon dioxide before and after plasma generation using an infrared spectrometer (FTIR);

4 is a graph of methane, carbon dioxide, and synthesis gas measured before and after plasma generation by gas chromatography (Gas Chromatography).

<Explanation of code about main part of drawing>

10: magnetron 64: vortex gas inlet

66: source gas inlet 74: syngas collection container

80: reactor 82: tapered waveguide

88: discharge tube

The present invention relates to a carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ) reforming method of methane (CH ₄ ) for synthesizing hydrogen (H ₂ ) using an electromagnetic plasma torch.

More specifically, the present invention relates to a method of decomposing methane and carbon dioxide by passing methane and carbon dioxide in a constant volume ratio into a 1 atm electromagnetic plasma torch, and synthesizing hydrogen and carbon monoxide through plasma chemical reactions.

Gases that affect global warming are called greenhouse gases. These gases include carbon dioxide, methane, and florine compounds used as refrigerants. In particular, carbon dioxide is known to contribute about 55% or more to the global greenhouse effect. This carbon dioxide is the main greenhouse gas that raises the temperature of the earth by absorbing the heat of radiation re-emitted from the earth.

Much research has been conducted in that the reforming reaction of carbon dioxide and methane produces hydrogen and carbon monoxide (CO), which are the most important raw materials in the petrochemical industry. The most widely used method for producing hydrogen is a method for producing hydrogen by steam reforming of a hydrocarbon compound such as methane gas or methanol using a thermochemical reaction. This modification can be done at high temperatures near 800 ° C. However, this reforming reaction is endothermic and must maintain a high temperature near 800 ° C. For this purpose, the reactor must be thoroughly insulated.

As described above, the method for producing hydrogen by reforming reaction through thermochemical reaction is performed at high temperature and is endothermic, so the reactor is installed due to the installation of various auxiliary devices necessary for thermal insulation of the reactor, heat exchange for cooling the generated gas, gas supply, pressure adjustment, and the like. The disadvantage is that the size of the system is huge, especially when the reforming reactor is mounted on a transport vehicle.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems of the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing hydrogen and carbon monoxide by reforming the source gas of carbon dioxide and methane by a plasma reaction using an electromagnetic discharge instead of a thermochemical reaction. .

In addition, another object of the present invention is to convert and remove the carbon dioxide recovered and recovered by the plasma reaction using the electromagnetic discharge to carbon monoxide.

One embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above object is a magnetron for oscillating a typical 2.45 GHz electromagnetic wave; A power supply for supplying power to the magnetron; A circulator that completely absorbs the reflected waves reflected by the magnetron to protect the magnetron, and outputs electromagnetic waves oscillated from the magnetron; A directional coupler for monitoring the magnitude of incident and reflected waves and outputting electromagnetic waves transmitted through the circulator; A 3-stub tuner for impedance matching against electromagnetic waves input from the directional coupler; A reactor in which plasma is generated by the electromagnetic waves transmitted through the 3-stub tuner and vortex gas injected from the outside, and a plasma reforming reaction occurs; A gas supply unit for injecting a vortex gas stabilizing the plasma into the reactor and a source gas necessary for the plasma reforming reaction; And a gas collector in which the synthesized gases from the reactor are collected.

In addition, another embodiment of the present invention is a method for producing hydrogen by converting electromagnetic energy into an electric field and exposing the plasma forming gas and source gas to the electric field to produce hydrogen, the electromagnetic wave oscillated in the magnetron is a conventional circulator, directional Transmitting to the waveguide through a coupler, a 3-stub tuner; A second step of inducing an electric field in a discharge tube installed by vertically penetrating the waveguide at a position in which a wavelength within the tube is 1/4 from the end of the waveguide; A third step of injecting a vortex gas used as a plasma gas or a plasma stabilizing gas into the discharge tube; A fourth step of forming a one-atmosphere plasma by the vortex gas and the electric field by an ignition device, and a fifth step of inducing a source gas used for hydrogen and carbon monoxide synthesis into the plasma; The sixth process collects the synthesized hydrogen and carbon monoxide.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The basis of the present invention is the portion indicated by (100) in the block diagram of FIG. In FIG. 1, the power supply device 20 supplies power to the magnetron 10 that oscillates electromagnetic waves, and the electromagnetic waves oscillated from the magnetron 10 are transmitted to the directional coupler 40 through the circulator 30. The circulator 30 completely absorbs the reflected waves reflected by the magnetron 10 to protect the magnetron 10, and transmits the electromagnetic waves oscillated from the magnetron 10 to the directional coupler 40. The directional coupler 40 monitors the magnitudes of the incident and reflected waves while outputting the electromagnetic waves transmitted through the circulator 30, and the 3-stub tuner 50 matches the impedances of the electromagnetic waves input from the directional coupler 40. To maximize electromagnetic energy transfer. Plasma is generated by the electromagnetic wave transmitted through the 3-stub tuner 50 and the vortex gas and the ignition device injected from the gas supply unit. Source gas for synthesizing hydrogen and carbon monoxide is injected from the gas supply unit 60 into the plasma generated in the reactor, and the synthesis gas generated through the plasma chemical reaction enters the gas collection unit 70.

2 is a cross-sectional view of the portion denoted by (100) in FIG. In FIG. 1, the electromagnetic wave 86 output through the three-stub tuner 50 flows into the discharge tube 88 through the waveguide 82, and the discharge tube 88 is formed of a dielectric such as quartz and alumina. The discharge tube 88 is provided through the waveguide 82 in a vertical position at a quarter of the wavelength inside the tube from the end of the waveguide 82. The discharge tube 88 is mounted to a holder 62 made of metal such as stainless steel and brass, and the vortex gas inlet 64 and the raw material gas inlet 66 are installed in the holder 62. The vortex gas inlet 64 may be composed of a single or a plurality of vortex gas injected through the vortex gas inlet 64 stabilizes the plasma 84 generated in the discharge tube 88 and at the same time discharge tube by high temperature plasma (88) prevents damage. The source gas injected through the source gas injection port 66 is injected through an induction pipe so as to pass through the center of the flame of the plasma 84. Carbon dioxide and methane as the source gas is not shown in Figure 2, so as to mix well, but enters the source gas inlet 66 through the gas mixer. Gases decomposed and synthesized by the plasma 84 in the discharge tube 88 are collected in the collection vessel 74.

The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the following examples. However, the scope of the present invention is not limited only to the following Examples.

<Experimental example>

3 and 4 show the results of the experiment using the present invention. The apparatus used is shown in FIG. Argon was used as the vortex gas and 7 liters per minute were injected. After 10 minutes of flow to make the reactor inert, 60 sccm (standard cubic centimeter per minute) of methane and carbon dioxide were injected into the feed gas inlet, respectively. At this time, the gas before plasma generation was sampled at the exit of the electromagnetic plasma torch, and the amounts of carbon dioxide and methane gas were measured using an infrared spectrometer and gas chromatography. 3 is infrared spectroscopy data for confirming the conversion of methane and carbon dioxide. In FIG. 3, the horizontal line represents the wave number and the vertical line represents the gas permeation rate (%). The bands of wavenumbers (cm ^-1 ) 3000 and 1300 on the horizon are representative spectra of methane and the 2364 bands are representative of carbon dioxide. When the infrared spectroscopy changes after the plasma generation, it can be seen that almost 99% of methane and carbon dioxide are decomposed in the 1 GHz electromagnetic plasma torch, and carbon monoxide in the 2100 cm ⁻¹ region is produced. Experimental conditions of FIG. 4 are the same as those of FIG. 3, and show gas chromatography spectra to confirm the presence or absence of hydrogen synthesis. In FIG. 4, the horizontal line represents the time taken until each gas is detected at the detector after the sampled gas is injected into the gas chromatography, and is represented as a retention time, and the vertical line represents the amount of each detected gas. Carbon dioxide and methane were detected at 3.19 and 9.1 minutes before plasma generation, hydrogen at 1.84 minutes, ethylene (C ₂ H ₄ ) at 4.8 minutes, and carbon monoxide at 9.75 minutes after plasma generation.

As described above, according to the present invention, hydrogen can be easily synthesized by reforming methane and carbon dioxide by a plasma chemical reaction method using a 1-atm electromagnetic plasma torch, without relying on a thermochemical method. It is expected to be useful in the petrochemical industry.

Claims (5)

In a method in which electromagnetic energy induces an electric field and uses the electric field to form a plasma and synthesize hydrogen, The first step of transmitting the electromagnetic wave oscillated in the magnetron to the waveguide through the conventional circulator, directional coupler, three-stub tuner; A second step of inducing an electric field in a discharge tube installed through the waveguide vertically at a position in which a wavelength within the tube is 1/4 from the end of the waveguide; A third step of injecting a vortex gas used as a plasma gas or a plasma stabilizing gas into the discharge tube; A fourth step of causing the vortex gas and the electric field to form a 1 atmosphere plasma by an ignition device; A fifth step of inducing a source gas used for hydrogen synthesis into the plasma; A method of synthesizing hydrogen using an electromagnetic plasma torch comprising a sixth step of collecting the synthesized hydrogen and carbon monoxide gas into a collection container. The method of claim 1, wherein the magnetron, A method for synthesizing hydrogen using an electromagnetic plasma torch, characterized by oscillating an electromagnetic wave having an output of 1 to 10 Hz at an operating frequency of 2.45 Hz. The method of claim 1, Methane and carbon dioxide in a volume ratio of 1: 1. The method of claim 1, Hydrogen and carbon monoxide synthesis source gas characterized in that the methane and carbon dioxide. The method of claim 1, Mixed methane gas and carbon dioxide gas is injected through the vortex gas inlet.

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