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. H2S, H2, CH4, CO, CO2, N2, and O2, which have been known as typical UCG gas components, are found to be contained in the gas, and alkanes (CnH2n+2), alkenes (CnH2n), and so on are also detected. When the UCG gas containing H2S 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 H2S are approximately 80% and 1.94 mmol/kWh, respectively, and that the production amount of H2 increases by approximately 14−40% and the production efficiency of H2 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 H2 may be produced from alkenes contained in the UCG gas by discharge plasma reforming. This leads that desulfurization and H2 production can be done simultaneously in a single reactor.