Hydrogen production from polymeric organic solids via atmospheric pressure nonthermal Plasma

TL;DR

This research explores using atmospheric nonthermal plasma reactors to produce green hydrogen from plastic waste, demonstrating increased efficiency with higher voltage and comparable performance across different reactor designs.

Contribution

It introduces two novel low-temperature atmospheric pressure plasma reactors for hydrogen production from plastic waste, with detailed characterization and performance analysis.

Findings

Hydrogen production rate increases with voltage in both reactors.

Reactor performance metrics are comparable despite different operational modes.

Potential for sustainable hydrogen production from plastic waste using plasma technology.

Abstract

The potential of using hydrogen as a sustainable energy carrier is attributed to its high energy density and its utilization without CO$_2$ emissions. Existing technologies mainly produce hydrogen thermochemically via natural gas reforming or electrochemically through water splitting. Organic solid feedstocks rich in hydrogen, such as biomass and plastic waste, are under-utilized for this purpose. Approaches based on low-temperature atmospheric pressure plasma powered by renewable electricity could lead to the production of green hydrogen more viably than current approaches, leading to sustainable alternatives for upcycling plastic and biomass waste. This doctoral research dissertation focuses on the production of hydrogen from solids via atmospheric nonthermal plasma. First, two low-temperature atmospheric pressure plasma reactors, based on transferred arc (transarc) and gliding arc (glidarc) discharges and depicting complementary operational characteristics, are designed, built, and characterized to produce hydrogen from low-density polyethylene (LDPE) as a model plastic waste. Experimental results show that hydrogen production rate and efficiency increase monotonically with increasing voltage level in both reactors. Despite the reactors' markedly different modes of operation, their hydrogen production performance metrics are comparable.