Synergistic effect of dielectric barrier discharge plasma and Mn catalyst on CO₂ reforming of toluene

The present contribution experimentally examined the combined effect of non-thermal plasma and Mn-based composite catalysts on CO₂ reforming of toluene as a model compound of tars in synthesis gas production from biomass gasification and pyrolysis. The experimentation was performed using a fixed-bed reactor packed with a catalyst and incorporating a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) to generate non-thermal plasma in-situ. The effects of specific energy density (SED), catalyst loading, and CO₂ concentration on the yields of H₂, CO and light hydrocarbons (such as CH₄, C₂H₆ and C₂H₂) were systematically studied and a potential synergistic mechanism for the plasma catalytic reforming of toluene by CO₂ is proposed. The experimental results indicate that Mn-based catalysts perform similarly well in the plasma catalytic reforming of toluene by CO₂ as has previously been observed in the literature using O₂ as the reforming agent.