Fedirchyk I. Plasma-catalytic reforming of green hydrocarbons.

This work is dedicated to the experimental study of hybrid plasma-catalytic reforming of green hydrocarbons with the help of rotating gliding discharge plasma, the creation of a physical basis of this process and the study of the influence of the external factors on the reforming products. Reforming was conducted with the help of plasma source based on the rotating gliding discharges with solid electrodes and with one liquid electrode. Plasma sources were designed to inhibit the negative influence of chemical reactions in the system on plasma non-equilibrium. The mean energy of plasma electrons of the rotating gliding discharge with liquid electrode was calculated for the different working gas compositions. The increase of water concentration in the working gas was shown to cause the increase of the mean energy of plasma electrons. The influence of the corona discharge plasma on the surface tension of the liquids with different conductivity was studied. It was discovered that plasma influence leads to the decrease of the surface tension of the liquids. This effect is stronger for the liquids with low conductivity. The speed of stearin combustion was shown to increase with the presence of the corona discharge plasma. The hybrid plasma-catalytic reforming of the 96 % ethanol via the partial oxidation using rotating gliding discharge was studied. The inability to conduct the reforming at the experimental conditions without plasma was demonstrated. The dependence of the ethanol reforming product composition on the power spent on the plasma generation at the 450 oC reactor temperature was determined. It was shown that the change of the power supplied to the plasma source has a low impact on the volumetric concentrations of the main reforming products. It was determined that the reforming efficiency η increases with the increase of plasma source power, meanwhile the ratio α between the chemical energy of the hydrocarbon reforming products and the electrical energy spent on the plasma generation decreases. The dependence of the ethanol reforming products and parameters on the reactor temperature in the range from 200 to 350 oC was investigated. The maximum reforming efficiency was reached at the 250 oC reactor temperature. The energy yield of hydrogen at this temperature was equal to 350 g per kWh. The efficiency of the hybrid plasma-catalytic ethanol reforming was compared with other approaches to the conversion of ethanol into synthesis gas using plasma. It was shown that the hybrid plasma-catalytic reforming of the ethanol provides high efficiency and hydrogen energy yield in comparison with other systems.