Hydrogen from Ethanol by a Miniaturized Plasma Reforming System

Abstract

Ethanol–water mixtures were reformed directly into a rich H2 gas without an extra heat source with conversion rates of 69.8 and 88.0% by a non-thermal arc plasma reactor. The minimized plasma reactor was made up of a Laval nozzle electrode and a central electrode. In terms of energy efficiency, the optimal reforming condition was determined to be O/C ~ 0.5 and S/C ~ 1.0 with an ethanol input rate of ~0.10 g/s (Du CM et al. in International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 37:8318–8329, 2012 [1]).