Plasma reforming of bio-ethanol for hydrogen rich gas production

Abstract Hydrogen production from ethanol by non-thermal arc discharge was investigated in a novel miniaturized plasma reactor. It is observed that ethanol–water mixture was converted into hydrogen, carbon monoxide and other products. The V – I characteristic was recorded by an oscilloscope to study the effect of discharge on the ethanol reforming. In the experiments, ethanol–water mixture entered the reaction chamber through a special gas–liquid spray nozzle for a quick evaporation and a rapid mixing with air at room temperature. Assisted by a Laval nozzle electrode, non-thermal arc plasma can improve the performance of ethanol reforming. It is found that the maximum conversion rate of ethanol was 90.9% at O/C = 1.4, S/C = 1.2 and ethanol flow rate = 0.05 g/s, and the maximum hydrogen yield was 40.9% at O/C = 1.4, S/C = 1.2 and ethanol flow rate = 0.10 g/s. The ethanol reforming process produced little coke and nitrogen oxide which was less than 10 ppm in the supersonic/subsonic plasma working condition.

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