Plasma Kinetics in Electrical Discharge in Mixture of Air, Water and Ethanol Vapors for Hydrogen Enriched Syngas Production

TL;DR

This study investigates plasma kinetics in air-ethanol-water mixtures during electric discharge, aiming to optimize hydrogen-enriched syngas production through combined theoretical and experimental methods.

Contribution

It provides new insights into plasma behavior in air-ethanol-water mixtures and identifies optimal conditions for hydrogen yield in syngas production.

Findings

Maximum hydrogen yield occurs with equal ethanol and water in the solution.

Hydrogen production increases with discharge power and saturates at high power levels.

Experimental and numerical results for gas components agree well in most cases.

Abstract

The complex theoretical and experimental investigation of plasma kinetics of the electric discharge in the mixture of air and ethanol-water vapors is carried out. The discharge was burning in the cavity, formed by air jets pumping between electrodes, placed in aqueous ethanol solution. It is found out that the hydrogen yield from the discharge is maximal in the case when ethanol and water in the solution are in equal amounts. It is shown that the hydrogen production increases with the discharge power and reaches the saturation at high value. The concentrations of the main stable gas-phase components, measured experimentally and calculated numerically, agree well in the most cases.