Abstract
It has been previously reported that the dry reforming of methane can be enhanced by means of microwave heating. In this article, this technology is applied to the CO2 reforming of coke oven gas (COG). The results obtained were opposite to those reported in the CO2 reforming of CH4, since in the case of the COG, microwave heating only slightly enhanced the conversions when an activated carbon was used as catalyst, whereas the results achieved when mixtures of activated carbon and Ni/Al 2O3 were employed as catalyst were even worse than those obtained in a conventional oven. Several hypotheses were considered in order to find an explanation for these poor results, the nature of the microplasmas formed during the process being the most likely factor. The high proportions of H2 present in the reactor when the dry reforming of coke oven gas is carried out may give rise to microplasmas of higher temperature than in the dry reforming of CH4. This will cause the Ni particles to sinter significantly, leading to a decrease in the conversions.
