Herein, the CO2 reforming of methanol, or can be called dry reforming of methanol (DRM), was investigated for the first time using a rotating gliding arc plasma. The effect of input CH3OH concentration on the reaction performance of the DRM process has been investigated. Optical emission spectroscopy (OES) has been used to give insights into the formation of reactive species in the plasma chemical reactions. In addition, the possible reaction mechanisms of the plasma DRM process have been discussed. The plasma assisted DRM has been demonstrated to be a promising route for clean syngas production and high efficiency CO2 conversion. This process provided a significantly higher efficiency for CO2 conversion compared to other plasma technologies, while maintaining a CO2 flow rate (or processing capacity) of one or several orders of magnitude higher. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.