Chemical Kinetics Simulation of Hydrogen Generation in Rotating Gliding Arc Plasma

Abstract

This work reports hydrogen (H <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> ) formation using methane nitrogen gas mixture as a feed stream in a rotating gliding arc (RGA) reactor. The H <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> formation in the RGA was quantified by experimental studies, and the results were validated by simulating plasma chemical kinetics using the Chemical Workbench software. The simulation was performed for an experimental condition, where methane (1%) and nitrogen (99%) gas mixture was fed to an RGA at 5, 10, 25, and 40 lpm. For these flow rates, the simulation predicted 1417, 802, 299, and 67 ppm of H <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> , respectively. Also, the results show that at these flow rates, the reduced electric field (E/N) of the discharge was 78, 83, 92, and 101 Td and the gas temperature was 3800, 4108, 4590, and 4975 K respectively. The simulation result was in reasonable agreement with the experimental data, which shows 1276, 717, 213, and 61 ppm of H <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub> in the product gas, respectively, at 5, 10, 25, and 40 lpm. This work marks the first step toward process optimization through the simulation approach.