Hydrogen production in a thermal plasma hydrogen reformer using ethanol steam reforming

Abstract

This paper presents both analytical thermodynamic analysis and experimental results of ethanol steam reforming in a thermal plasma reformer at various working conditions. Since our thermal plasma reformer can work well at atmospheric pressure, a thermodynamic equilibrium prediction is first performed at temperatures in the range from 500 to 1000°C and at mole flow ratios of ethanol to water from 1:1 to 1:6. And then the experiment for ethanol steam reforming of a fabricated thermal plasma reformer is performed and the reformate stream is immediately analyzed using GC/MS, GC/FID/TCD, and pre‐concentrator. Comparing predicted data with experimental data, an optimal working condition is determined at the temperature of 750°C and at mole flow ratio of ethanol to water of 1:3. In the future, an optimal temperature control system will be designed to maintain the thermal plasma reformer at the temperature of 750°C under the inlet mole flow ratio of ethanol to water of 1:3.