Decomposition of natural gas or methane using cold arc discharge

Apparatus for decomposing natural gas or methane which comprises:

• a reactor with a reaction zone;
• means for passing a flow of natural gas or methane through said reaction zone;
• and
• means for generating at least one high frequency cold arc discharge in said reaction zone such as to convert any of the natural gas or methane flowing through the reaction zone into its gaseous constituents and carbon in the form of solid particles, in which the reactor has a tubular shape with a rotatable cylindrical ground electrode in the middle and with a cylindrical outer wall of dielectric material through which a plurality of said high voltage (HV) electrodes extend into the reaction zone, each of HV electrodes is provided with a capacitor in series and is connected, through said capacitor, to a pulsating high voltage source such as to produce the at least one high frequency cold arc discharge between each HV electrode and the ground electrode.

Apparatus comprising:

• a reactor with a reaction zone;
• means for passing a flow of natural gas or methane through said reaction zone;
• and
• means for generating at least one cold arc discharge in said reaction zone such as to convert any of the natural gas or methane flowing through the reaction zone into its gaseous constituents and carbon in the form of solid particles, in which the reactor has a tubular shape with a rotatable cylindrical shaft in the middle made of dielectric material and a tubular high voltage (HV) electrode surrounding said shaft, the reaction zone being formed between said shaft and said HV electrode;
• a plurality of electrodes are embedded in the rotatable cylindrical shaft and project outwardly therefrom in the reaction zone, each of said electrodes being connected to a capacitor and then to common ground;
• and a pulsating high voltage source is connected to the HV electrode such as to generate the at least one cold arc discharge between each capacitor-connected electrode and the common HV electrode in the reaction zone.