Natural Gas Micro-Channel Reactor for Producing C2 Hydrocarbons

The Department of Energy is soliciting innovations in chemical processing of natural gas feed stocks in particular to produce valuable products such as acetylene. Furthermore, it is desired to conduct these chemical processes in miniaturized point-of-use, on-demand systems. Toward this goal, Reactive Innovations, LLC proposes to develop a micro-channel chemical reactor using a catalytic cold plasma process to convert natural gas into C2 hydrocarbons. A new manufacturing technology for producing micro-channel systems was recently demonstrated by Reactive for the Department of Energy. This process will be used to produce a cold plasma reactor with an integrated catalyst that can process methane into acetylene. The use of a micro-channel reactor helps increase thermal and mass-transfer rates to the walls. With both heat transfer and mass transfer coefficients increasing as the channel diameter is reduced, using an array of micro-channels with this catalytic cold plasma approach will significantly improve reaction yields while lowering energy requirements.