Hydrogen Production by Ethanol Steam Reforming using Plasma Reactor Combined with Catalyst

摘要

Hydrogen production by ethanol reforming using a plasma reactor combined with catalysts,has been investigated experimentally aiming to realize the high performance fuel processorfor Fuel Cell Vehicle(FCV). By impregnating catalyst on the inner surface of aluminaelectrode, a system combing plasma with catalyst to permit the simultaneous plasma andcatalyst treatment is implemented. The experiments on different catalyst as copper, nickel,platinum were carried out aiming at finding the best catalyst for ethanol steam reforming. Asa result, copper is the most suitable one considering from the ethanol conversion and productselectivity. The frequency effect of plasma discharge was also investigated at the range of 1kHz to 10 kHz. The result indicated that 3 kHz was the optimum frequency, at which theethanol conversion showed the biggest. From the experimental result, a reaction rate equationas a function of applied power was derived, which was in good agreement with theexperimental data.