Jointly published by React.Kinet.Catal.Lett. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest Vol. 82, No. 1, 111-119 and Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht (2004) 0133-1736/2004/US$ 20.00. © Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest. All rights reserved. RKCL4468 METHANE OXIDATION IN A DIELECTRIC BARRIER DISCHARGE. THE IMPACT OF DISCHARGE POWER AND DISCHARGE GAP FILLING Alexander A. Khassin *a , Barbara L. Pietruszka b , Moritz Heintze b and Valentin N. Parmon a a Boreskov Institute of Catalysis, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia b Institute of Low Temperature Plasma Physics, Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Str. 19, 17489 Greifswald, Germany Received December 8, 2003 Accepted December 16, 2003 Abstract The conversion of an air-methane mixture in a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) was studied in a wide range of temperatures and discharge powers for different gap fillings. The impact of the gap filling surface area appears to be negligible at temperatures below 530 K, while being significant above 570 K. Some processes on the surface are countercurrent to those in the DBD plasma. Keywords: Dielectric barrier discharge, methane oxidation, plasma-induced reaction, catalysis, surface INTRODUCTION Conversion of methane to the synthesis gas is the main industrial route for upgrading natural gas to hydrogen, fuels and chemicals. The common catalytic activation of methane can be performed only at relatively high temperatures (above 750 K). In addition, equilibrium thermodynamics of the water gas shift reaction favors selective formation of CO at temperatures as high as 1100 K and even higher. During the last decade, quite a few studies on the possibility of effective and selective production of the synthesis gas via non-equilibrium _________________________ *Corresponding author. E-mail: a.a.khassin@catalysis.nsk.su