Intensified performance of methane dry reforming based on non-thermal plasma technology: Recent progress and key challenges

The CH4 and CO2 emissions are continuously increasing in the earth's atmosphere due to the worldwide dependency on fossil fuels. Therefore, utilization, such as the conversion of CO2 and CH4 to valuable products, particularly syngas, is essential to the current industrial process. However, the constant demand to improve the conventional methods for better conversion, energy efficiency, and catalyst deactivation due to sintering and coke formation are driving factors for developing alternative strategies. Non-thermal plasma offers such an opportunity where the plasma and catalyst interaction are particularly promising to convert those gases (CH4 and CO2) that are hard to activate. This review article discusses the activation of CH4 and CO2 under the non-thermal plasma and highlights the effect of process parameters on the conversion and selectivity in detail. The opportunity and challenges of plasma catalysts are summarized, and the performance of different non-thermal plasma discharges in dry reforming of methane (DRM) are comprehensively discussed to get better insights, including many examples where the non-thermal plasma has demonstrated better performance. •The advantages and drawbacks of DRM are discussed.•The current outlook of Plasma-based DRM as an emerging technology is highlighted.•The development and performance of nonthermal plasma discharges are summarized.•Operating DRM assisted with nonthermal plasma reduced the coke formation.