Efficient Plasma Technology for the Production of Green Hydrogen from Ethanol and Water

This study concerns the production of hydrogen from a mixture of ethanol and water. The process was conducted in plasma generated by a spark discharge. The substrates were introduced in the liquid phase into the reactor. The gaseous products formed in the spark reactor were hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, acetylene, and ethylene. Coke was also produced. The energy efficiency of hydrogen production was 27 mol(H2)/kWh, and it was 36% of the theoretical energy efficiency. The high value of the energy efficiency of hydrogen production was obtained with relatively high ethanol conversion (63%). In the spark discharge, it was possible to conduct the process under conditions in which the ethanol conversion reached 95%. However, this entailed higher energy consumption and reduced the energy efficiency of hydrogen production to 8.8 mol(H2)/kWh. Hydrogen production increased with increasing discharge power and feed stream. However, the hydrogen concentration was very high under all tested conditions and ranged from 57.5 to 61.5%. This means that the spark reactor is a device that can feed fuel cells, the power load of which can fluctuate

A Promising Cobalt Catalyst for Hydrogen Production

In this work, a metal cobalt catalyst was synthesized, and its activity in the hydrogen production process was tested. The substrates were water and ethanol. Activity tests were conducted at a temperature range of 350–600 °C, water to ethanol molar ratio of 3 to 5, and a feed flow of 0.4 to 1.2 mol/h. The catalyst had a specific surface area of 1.75 m2/g. The catalyst was most active at temperatures in the range of 500–600 °C. Under the most favorable conditions, the ethanol conversion was 97%, the hydrogen production efficiency was 4.9 mol (H2)/mol(ethanol), and coke production was very low (16 mg/h). Apart from hydrogen and coke, CO2, CH4, CO, and traces of C2H2 and C2H4 were formed

A Promising Cobalt Catalyst for Hydrogen Production

In this work, a metal cobalt catalyst was synthesized, and its activity in the hydrogen production process was tested. The substrates were water and ethanol. Activity tests were conducted at a temperature range of 350–600 °C, water to ethanol molar ratio of 3 to 5, and a feed flow of 0.4 to 1.2 mol/h. The catalyst had a specific surface area of 1.75 m2/g. The catalyst was most active at temperatures in the range of 500–600 °C. Under the most favorable conditions, the ethanol conversion was 97%, the hydrogen production efficiency was 4.9 mol (H2)/mol(ethanol), and coke production was very low (16 mg/h). Apart from hydrogen and coke, CO2, CH4, CO, and traces of C2H2 and C2H4 were formed

Toluene Decomposition in Plasma–Catalytic Systems with Nickel Catalysts on CaO-Al₂O₃ Carrier

The decomposition of toluene as a tar imitator in a gas composition similar to the gas after biomass pyrolysis was studied in a plasma–catalytic system. Nickel catalysts and the plasma from gliding arc discharge under atmospheric pressure were used. The effect of the catalyst bed, discharge power, initial toluene, and hydrogen concentration on C7H8 decomposition, calorific value, and unit energy consumption were studied. The gas flow rate was 1000 NL/h, while the inlet gas composition (molar ratio) was CO (0.13), CO2 (0.15), H2 (0.28–0.38), and N2 (0.34–0.44). The study was conducted using an initial toluene concentration in the range of 2000–4500 ppm and a discharge power of 1500–2000 W. In plasma–catalytic systems, the following catalysts were compared: NiO/Al2O3, NiO/(CaO-Al2O3), and Ni/(CaO-Al2O3). The decomposition of toluene increased with its initial concentration. An increase in hydrogen concentration resulted in higher activity of the Ni/(CaO-Al2O3) catalysts. The gas composition did not change by more than 10% during the process. Trace amounts of C2 hydrocarbons were observed. The conversion of C7H8 was up to 85% when NiO/(CaO-Al2O3) was used. The products of the toluene decomposition reactions were not adsorbed onto its surface. The calorific value was not changed during the process and was higher than required for turbines and engines in every system studied

Nickel catalyst in coupled plasma-catalytic system for tar removal

Tar formation is a significant issue during biomass gasification. Catalytic removal of tars with the use of nickel cata-lyst allows to obtain high conversion rate but coke formation on catalysts surface lead to its deactivation. Toluene decomposition as a tar imitator was studied in gliding discharge plasma-catalytic system with the use of 5%, 10% and 15% by weight Ni and NiO catalyst on Al2O3 (α-Al2O3) and Peshiney (γ-Al2O3) carrier in gas composition similar to the gas after biomass pyrolysis. The optimal concentration of nickel was identified to be 10% by weight on Al2O3. It was stable in all studiedinitial toluene concentrations, discharge power while C7H8 conversion rate remained high – up to 82%. During the process, nickel catalysts were deactivated by sooth formation on the surface. On catalysts surface, toluene decomposition products were identified including benzyl alcohol and 3-hexen-2-one

Purification of the gas after pyrolysis in coupled plasma-catalytic system

Gliding discharge and coupled plasma-catalytic system were used for toluene conversion in a gas composition such as the one obtained during pyrolysis of biomass. The chosen catalyst was G-0117, which is an industrial catalyst for methane conversion manufactured by INS Pulawy (Poland). The effects of discharge power, initial concentration of toluene, gas flow rate and the presence of the bed of the G-0117 catalyst on the conversion of C7H8, a model tars compounds were investigated. Conversion of coluene increases with discharge power and the highest one was noted in the coupled plasma-catalytic system. It was higher than that in the homogeneous system of gliding discharge. When applying a reactor with reduced G-0117 and CO (0.15 mol%), CO2 (0.15 mol%), H2 (0.30 mol%), N2 (0.40 mol%), 4000 ppm of toluene and gas flow rate of 1.5 Nm3/h, the conversion of toluene was higher than 99%. In the coupled plasma-catalytic system with G-0117 methanation of carbon oxides was observed

Efficient Conversion of Ethanol to Hydrogen in a Hybrid Plasma-Catalytic Reactor

The present work describes highly efficient hydrogen production from ethanol in a plasma-catalytic reactor depending on the discharge power and catalyst bed temperature. Hydrogen production increased as the power increased from 15 to 25 W. A further power increase to 35 W did not increase hydrogen production. The catalyst was already active at a temperature of 250 °C, and its activity increased with increasing temperature to 450 °C. The further temperature increase did not increase the activity of the cobalt catalyst. The most important advantage of using the catalyst was the increased ethanol conversion to CO2 instead of CO production. As a result, the hydrogen yield was very high and reached 4.1 mol(H2)/mol(C2H5OH). This result was obtained with a stoichiometric molar ratio of water to ethanol of 3

Oxidative methane conversion in dielectric barrier discharge

A dielectric barrier discharge was used for the oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) with oxygen at the pressure of 1.2 bar. A dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor was powered at the frequency of about 6 kHz. Molar ratio CH4/O2 in the inlet gas containing 50% or 25% of argon was 3, 6 and 12. The effects of temperature (110, 150 and 340 ◦C), gas flow rate, molar ratio of methane to oxygen on the overall methane and oxygen conversion and methane conversion to methanol, ethanol, hydrocarbons, carbon oxides and water were studied. In the studied system the increase of the temperature decreases the conversion of methane to methanol. The increase of the molar ratio of methane to oxygen increased the methane conversion to hydrocarbons and strongly decreased the methane conversion to alcohols. The conversion of methane to hydrocarbons increased and the conversion of methane to methanol decreased with the decrease of the gas flow rate from 2 to 1 NL/h