Reforming of Coal Gasification Gas by a Packed‐bed Dielectric Barrier Discharge

SUMMARY An artificial underground coal gasification (UCG) gas is generated by heating crushed coal, the artificial UCG gas is reformed by a packed‐bed dielectric barrier discharge (PB‐DBD), and then the reforming characteristics of the UCG gas are investigated. H 2 S, H 2 , CH 4 , CO, CO 2 , N 2 , and O 2 , which have been known as typical UCG gas components, are found to be contained in the gas, and alkanes (C n H 2n+2 ), alkenes (C n H 2n ), and so on are also detected. When the UCG gas containing H 2 S of 400 ppm is reformed at an input power of 40W and a flow rate of 0.1 L/min, it is found that the decomposition rate and the decomposition efficiency of H 2 S are approximately 80% and 1.94 mmol/kWh, respectively, and that the production amount of H 2 increases by approximately 14−40% and the production efficiency of H 2 is 81.4 mmol/kWh. It is also found that the concentration of alkenes decreases obviously, while the concentration of alkanes is not affected significantly by discharge plasma reforming. This indicates that H 2 may be produced from alkenes contained in the UCG gas by discharge plasma reforming. This leads that desulfurization and H 2 production can be done simultaneously in a single reactor.