The reforming of methane by carbon dioxide was studied in a pulsed plasma reactor. The
products mainly consisted of syngas and C2 hydrocarbons. Compared to the previous
similar works, the electrical pulse energy injected into the reactor was much lower, 5–8 mJ,
while the frequency was increased up to 5 kHz. At these low energy densities, the chemical
energy efficiency was appreciably improved. The latter was higher than 30% throughout
the experiments while reached the maximum of about 55% at the reactants ratio CO2/
CH4 ¼ 3. Although, the reactor temperature was typically 70 C, the hydrogen production
efficiency of at least 50% was achieved. The better performance at lower energy densities is
attributed to the fast saturation of the molecular dissociation rate by the excitation level or
equivalently by the pulse energy.