Research On Hydrogen Production From Methane And Ammonia Reforming Using Laval Nozzle Electrode Gliding Arc Discharge Plasma

The oil resources are increasingly scarce with the excessive exploitation. The world’s energy structure is undergoing profound changes, and now it is an urgent need to find a sustainable and environment-friendly new energy. Hydrogen energy has generally been regarded as an ideal new world of non-polluting green energy, because water is the only production after the hydrogen burning.A gliding arc plasma based on laval nozzle is developped in this paper, Based on the mechanism of gliding arc discharge, the physical characteristics of this new type of gliding arc plasma, as well as reforming of methane and ammonia to produce hydrogen using such gliding arc plasma were studied. The main contents are as follows:(1) Summary of plasma technologies at home and abroad, the research progress in reforming hydrogen, the plasma degradation mechanism, the various ways and types of plasmas to reforming fuels for hydrogen.(2) The physical characteristics of the nozzle gliding arc plasma with10kV AC power was analyzed, including the volt-ampere characteristic and the movement of the gliding arc. There are four types of gliding arc of the Laval nozzle voltage mutations are found. Current substantially show regular sinusoidal fluctuations. The movement images of the gliding arc obtained by the high-speed photography could further explain the change trend of the voltage and current.(3) Based on the recognition of the methane reforming mechanism, reforming of methane to produce hydrogen using the laval nozzle gliding arc was studied. The influence parameters include the supply voltage, input gas flow rate, the inlet concentration of methane, water vapor and other factors. Experimental results show that with the increasing concentration of methane, the methane conversion rate and the selectivity of the H2 decrease at the same time; the power consumption also increases with the increase of the methane concentration; methane conversion rate and the selectivity of the H2decrease with the increase of the input flow rate; with increasing the content of water vapor in the gas mixture, the conversion of methane gradually increases; The conversion rate of methane and the selectivity of H2increase with the increase of the throat radius.(4) Based on the recognition of the methane reforming mechanism, reforming ammonia to produce hydrogen using the gliding arc generated in a nozzle for was studied. The parameters include the supply voltage, nozzle throat radius and input flow rate. Results show that with the same ammonia flow, the conversion rate of the ammonia gas is reduced with the increasing flow rate, power consumption increases; with the same flow rate of ammonia, the greater the concentration of ammonia, the greater the power is consumed; power consumption and ammonia conversion rate increase with the supply voltage increases; ammonia conversion rate increases with the increasing radius of the throat.