Plasma-catalytic dry reforming of methane over Al2O3 supported metal catalysts

The rapid exhaustion of fossil fuel reserves and the adverse effects of climate change caused by increasing global energy demands have attracted great attention and pose serious threats to humankind. Dry reforming of methane and carbon dioxide has recently attracted significant interest due to simultaneous production of hydrogen and reduction of two abundant greenhouse gases
^1–3
. However, one of the main challenges of thermal catalytic reaction is the high energy/strength of the CH bond, requiring high temperature to break it and incurring a high energy cost. In addition, the formation of coke deposition will cause rapid deactivation of catalysts, especially for nonnoble catalysts.