Experimental Study of a Rotating Electrode Plasma Reactor for Hydrogen Production from Liquid Petroleum Gas Conversion

Abstract

In this work, a new plasma reactor operating with a butane/propane (C4H10/C3H8) gaseous mixture, designed for hydrogen molecule production, was experimentally studied. This reactor is based on a rotating electrode, biased by an AC high voltage. The plasma discharge was investigated for different AC voltages, rotational frequencies, and gas flow rates. A discharge in the filamentary mode was produced as proved by the electrical characterization. Gas Chromatography (GC) was applied to study the LPG remediation. The maximum conversion factors of 70% and 60% were found for the C3H8 and C4H10, respectively, with an H2 selectivity of 98%. Hydrogen atomic lines from the Balmer series and various molecular bands were detected by optical emission spectroscopy (OES). The stark broadening of the Hα Balmer line was used for the determination of the electron density. The spectra simulation of the C2 band was permitted to obtain the gas temperature while the first five lines of hydrogen atoms were used to calculate the electron temperature. A non-equilibrium plasma with two very different temperatures for electrons and heavy particles was found. The spectroscopic study allowed us to explain the experimental results of the LPG conversion and its dependence on the plasma conditions, resulting in optimizing the H2 formation.

Keywords

• rotating plasma reactor
• LPG decomposition
• hydrogen production
• optical emission spectroscopy