PLASMA-CHEMICAL CONVERSION OF LOWER ALKANES WITH STIMULATED CONDENSATION OF INCOMPLETE OXIDATION-PRODUCTS

Oxidative conversion of a mixture of natural gas and oxygen in a barri er-discharge plasma-chemical reaction was investigated experimentally. The process was conducted at atmospheric pressure and room temperatur e. The discharge was initiated by high-voltage pulses of 50-100 mu s d uration at a repetition frequency of up to 2 kHz. The principal featur e of the process was that in the plasma-chemical reactor conditions we re created which stimulated the condensation of the products of incomp lete oxidation of methane that resulted in the formation of aerosol ev en from nonsaturated vapor. The removal of intermediate reagents from the gaseous phases into the aerosol prevented them from further oxidat ion. Depending on the experimental conditions, the mass percentage of the components of the condensate formed varied within the following li mits:formic acid from 20 to 40%, methanol from 8 to 15%, methylformate from 4 to 8%, and coater from 40 to 60%. The conversion process has b een realized on a laboratory setup of average power up to 1 kW. In the single-pass merle, a 57% degree of conversion of the mixture has been achieved. The energy value of the condensate is 15-20 kWh/kg.