Thermodynamic Equilibrium Prediction for Vegetable Oil Steam Reforming in Thermal Plasma Reformer

摘要

This paper presents the thermodynamic equilibrium predictions for steam reforming of vegetable oil in a thermal plasma reformer. An optimal operating condition has been chosen at temperature of 800°C and mole flow ratio of vegetable oil to water of 1:18 using software simulation. The predicted results show that mole fraction of hydrogen reaches, respectively, 61% and 63% on wet and dry bases for proton exchange membrane fuel cell applications. In addition, the total mole fractions of fuels for solid oxide fuel cell applications approaches 95% and even over 98% on wet and dry bases, respectively. These predicted data will be compared with experimental data conducted with a 1kWe thermal plasma reformer at Clean Energy R&D Center, Da-Yeh University in Taiwan, R.O.C.