Actively Learned Optimal Sustainable Operation of Plasma-Catalyzed Methane Bireforming on LaCeNiO Perovskite Catalyst.

Plasma-catalytic bireforming of methane was studied and actively optimized using a LaCeNiO perovskite catalyst via experimentation in tandem with response surface modeling. Plasma power, inlet flow rate, temperature, CO/CH ratio, and steam concentration were tuned to maximize a variety of process- and sustainability-based metrics. Analysis of the optimal conditions (with respect to different metrics) with and without the catalyst reveals that dry reforming is driven largely via noncatalytic reactions, while steam reforming and water gas shift reactions require the catalyst.