Gasification of corn cob using non-thermal arc plasma

• A small scale non-thermal arc plasma reactor as plasma generation source.
• It features low energy consumption, rapid start-up time and high productivity.
• The plasma reactor can produce high quality synthetic gas with the high content of H2 and CO.
• The presence of moisture is favorable for H2 production.

With high quality syngas consisting almost completely of H2 and CO, and solid carbon residues with high quality, the plasma treatment technology of biomass has been widely studied with the purpose of generating hydrogen. In this paper, the plasma gasification process of corn cob using non-thermal arc plasma was investigated after comparing various components of biomass, combining the physical truth of agricultural waste. The gas yield can reach 79.0% of the biomass feed without drying conditions at a discharge power of 25.2 W when using nitrogen as carrier gas with energy cost from the decomposition of corn cob is 5328 kJ/kgH2. Meanwhile, carbon conversion rate of 82.9%, CO selectivity of 39.9% and a ratio of H2/CO greater than 1.5 are obtained. It is found that different carrier gases have different impacts upon the reforming performance, and air is more beneficial for higher gas yield and CO selectivity. Besides, the presence of moisture is conducive to improve the gas yield, especially the production of hydrogen, carbon conversion rate and the molar ratio of H2/CO. Also, the varying tendencies of the gas products over the time at different experiment parameters are also discussed. Finally, the results of residual solid products were analyzed.

The schematic diagrams of (a) the experimental setup and (b) the structure of non-thermal arc discharge reactor.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide