Open AccessConversion of light hydrocarbon gases to metal carbides for production of liquid fuels and chemicals. Quarterly technical status report, April 1, 1995--June 30, 1995
Author(s) -
Abel Dı́az,
A. J. Modestino,
Jack B. Howard
Publication year - 1995
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/135085
Subject(s) - methane , carbide , combustion , materials science , plasma , atmospheric pressure , acetylene , gas composition , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemistry , environmental science , nuclear engineering , metallurgy , environmental chemistry , organic chemistry , thermodynamics , meteorology , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
Upgrading of the experimental apparatus was necessitated by problems encountered in the previous scoping runs with CH{sub 4}/MgO. To further improve plasma stability, a pressure controller was installed on the cooling chamber to maintain the chamber pressure constant at 1 atm and a mass flow controller was installed on the main plasma gas inlet line. With a fully functional data acquisition and control system, there is now the capability to record arc voltage, arc current, chamber pressure, feed gas mass flow, and cooling water and gas temperatures during the relatively short experimental runs. With this system, an improved sampling protocol can also be implemented whereby gas and solid sampling are initiated only when fully developed flowrates of methane and MgO are established in the plasma. Solid products from a scoping run under conditions of excess MgO above the stoichiometric requirement for 100% conversion of the methane exhibited intense reactivity in the open atmosphere, indicating high concentrations of magnesium carbide in the product. The hypothesis is that reaction begins with hydrolysis of the carbide by atmospheric moisture giving acetylene and/or methylacetylene which then, because of the intense local heating (possibly due to the fine particle sizes of the recently formed carbides), are ignited to produce flaming combustion