Hydrogen production from alcohol solution by microwave discharge in liquid

Abstract

Hydrogen, as an attractive energy carrier, is regarded as one of the best environmentally-friendly energy sources in the future. In the paper, it was reported that hydrogen was produced by 2.45 GHz microwave discharge in low carbon alcohol (methanol and ethanol) solution. The effects of microwave input power and concentration of alcohol solution on hydrogen production were studied. All results corresponded to the non-equilibrium plasma at reduced pressure (3000Ра). The gaseous products of microwave discharge in alcohol solution mainly included hydrogen, carbon monoxide, acetylene and carbon dioxide. The flow rates of total gaseous products and hydrogen increased with the increasing of power, while that increased firstly and then decreased with the increasing of concentration of alcohol solution. The percentage concentrations of hydrogen and carbon monoxide increased with the increasing of power, and when the concentration of alcohol solution was 8% v/v, the percentage concentrations of hydrogen and carbon monoxide reached a maximum value. As the power increased, the energy efficiency of hydrogen production improved significantly, and the energy efficiency of hydrogen produced from ethanol solution was higher than that from methanol solution with the same power. The energy efficiency of hydrogen production increased firstly and then decreased with the increasing of concentration of alcohol solution. In the paper, the best results of flow rate of hydrogen, percentage concentration of hydrogen and energy efficiency were 401.00 mL/min, 64.55% and 137.63 NL/kWh, respectively.