Plasma steam reforming of E85 for hydrogen rich gas production

Abstract

E85 (85 vol% ethanol and 15 vol% gasoline) is a partly renewable fuel that is increasing in supply availability. Hydrogen production from E85 for fuel cell or internal combustion engine applications is a potential method for reducing CO2 emissions. Steam reforming of E85 using a nonthermal plasma (pulse corona discharge) reactor has been exploited at low temperature (200–300 °C) without external heating, diluent gas, oxidant or catalyst in this work. Several operational parameters, including the discharge current, E85 concentration and feed flow rate, have been investigated. The results show that hydrogen rich gases (63–67% H2 and 22–29% CO, with small amounts of CO2, C2 hydrocarbons and CH4) can be produced by this method. A comparison with ethanol reforming and gasoline reforming under identical conditions has also been made and the behaviour of E85 reforming is found to be close to that of ethanol reforming with slightly higher C2 hydrocarbons yields.