Experimental Research On Reforming Of Fuels Into Hydrogen With Gliding Arc Discharge Plasma

Gliding arc discharge plasma is the non-equilibrium plasma at ambient condition, and has a dual character of thermal and non-thermal plasma. It has a high efficiency of energy transformation and inexpensive cost both from devices and operations. The gliding arc discharge plasma has a favorable foreground in the practical production as a new hydrogen production technology.The experimental research on reforming of fuels into hydrogen, using the ammonia and methane as raw materials, with gliding arc discharge plasma was studied. We stressed the effects of supply voltage, total flow and material ratio on the reactions and made an improvement on flat gliding arc discharge generator. A new rotating gliding arc discharge generator was designed and used for methane-reforming.The experiment indicated that, gliding arc discharge could decompose ammonia without the catalyst at ambient condition. Increasing of supply voltage can improve the decomposition rate of ammonia, and the energy cost for hydrogen could also decline. Increasing of total flow rate could decrease the decomposition rate and had a complex effect on energy cost for hydrogen, and the energy cost would decrease first and increase after. The decomposition rate would increase with the adding of some nitrogen.Products of methane decomposition with rotating gliding arc discharge in nitrogen atmosphere were carbon black, hydrogen, ethylene, acetylene and so on. Increasing of supply voltage and concentration of nitrogen could improve the decomposition rate of methane. Increasing of total flow would reduce the staying time of reactant gas in plasma space and the energy density of plasma space, and then reduce the decomposition rate of methane.Supply voltage is an important parameter in partial oxidation of methane with rotating gliding arc discharge, and high supply voltage could be beneficial to the reaction. With increasing of total flow, energy consumption for hydrogen would decrease first and increase after. The height of device cover also has an effect on the reaction. With increasing of excess air coefficient, hydrogen selectivity would increase first and decrease after, and the experiment show that a bit excessive oxygen would be benefit for increasing the hydrogen selectivity.