Hydrogen production by conversion of ethanol using atmospheric pressure microwave plasmas

• Atmospheric pressure plasma was used for hydrogen production via ethanol conversion.
• Waveguide-supplied metal-cylinder-based microwave (2.45 GHz) plasma source was used.
• N2 and CO2 were used as working gases carrying the ethanol vapours into the plasma.
• Ethanol dry and steam reforming were studied experimentally.
• Method can be used for hydrogen production from different liquid hydrocarbons.

The efficiency of hydrogen production from ethanol in the atmospheric pressure plasma generated in waveguide-supplied metal-cylinder-based microwave plasma source (MPS) was investigated experimentally. The tested parameters of hydrogen production efficiency were: hydrogen production rate in NL(H2)/h, energy yield of hydrogen production in NL(H2)/kWh, ethanol conversion degree in % and volume concentration of hydrogen in the outlet gas in %. Two ethanol based methods of hydrogen production were performed, namely ethanol dry and steam reforming. The best achieved experimental results showed that the energy yield of hydrogen production was about 78 NL(H2) per kWh of absorbed microwave energy in the case of ethanol dry reforming and about 257 NL(H2)/kWh in the case of ethanol steam reforming. Presented microwave plasma method can be successfully used for hydrogen production not only from ethanol, but also from different liquid compounds like gasoline, heavy oils and biofuels.

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