High Performance Low Temperature Methanol-Water Plasma Reforming

Abstract

This research studied a high performance, low temperature reforming system with a power supply input of 12V/150W. A methanol-water mixture was used as fuel and atomized into particles with a diameter of 2∼3 µm through the use of a high frequency supersonic oscillator. The atomized particles were then dissociated into concentrated hydrogen at a low temperature through the use of an inductively coupled high density plasma producer. The aim of this project was to reduce the operating temperature of a conventional reformer in order to significantly decrease power consumption and generate more concentrated hydrogen in a shorter time after a cold start. The reforming system in this study was proven to be capable of generating syngas with 12 vol% and 34 vol% hydrogen stably in 10 seconds and 20-25 seconds respectively after ignition with operating temperatures below 42°C. Therefore, this reforming system provided a low operating temperature, a short cold start time, low power consumption and still produced concentrated hydrogen. Hence, this reforming system would be suitable for installation in vehicles or mobile devices.

Keywords

• hydrogen
• reformer
• high-frequency supersonic oscillator
• high-density plasma producer