Hydrogen production from ethanol using a special multi-segment plasma-catalytic reactor

Abstract

The focus of the research was the process of hydrogen production from a mixture of water and ethanol in plasma and plasma-catalytic reactors. Plasma was produced in a dielectric barrier discharge. The catalyst was cobalt supported on ZrO2 (Co/ZrO2). The catalyst was placed in the grooves of the high voltage electrode. The ethanol conversion was similar in both studied reactors and increased from 34 to 55% with increasing discharge power from 20 to 60 W. However, hydrogen production in the plasma-catalytic reactor was up to 2.4 times greater than in the plasma reactor. The highest energy efficiency of hydrogen production in the plasma catalytic reactor was 7.7 mol(H2)·kWh-1. In the plasma reactor, the concentration of products was constant in the tested range of discharge power. In the plasma-catalytic reactor, H2 and CO2 concentrations increased with increasing discharge power, whereas concentrations of CO, CH4, C2H4, and C2H6 were decreased. The maximum H2 concentration was 56%.