Non Thermal Plasma Discharges For Methane Reforming

Download or read book Non-thermal Plasma Discharges for Methane Reforming written by Pablo Diaz Gomez Maqueo and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This thesis presents the experimental study of non-thermal plasmas applied to methane reforming at atmospheric pressure. The resulting hydrogen-containing gas is studied as a potential fuel additive to increase chemical reactivity in gas turbine engine conditions. Reactivity control is proposed as a fuel flexibility technology for low calorific fuels and as a mean to operate in low emission conditions such as lean premixed combustion.The experimental section of the thesis is focused on the characterization of pulsed-powered non-thermal discharge plasmas as fuel reformers. The experimental reactor consists of a pin to plane plasma chamber designed to be optically accessible and to isolate the reacting gases from the surrounding air. The applied voltage pulse duration is on the order of 100 ns to prevent thermalization of the plasma channel and to decouple thermal energy from excitation energy delivered by the discharge. When a voltage pulse is applied to the pin electrode, two stable regimes are identified: a diffuse regime with a plasma that occupies most of the inter-electrode volume, and a filamentary regime with constricted spark-like filaments. The first regime operates at a maximum energy per pulse of 1.3 mJ with negligible conversion efficiency. On the contrary, the filamentary regime reaches a maximum energy per pulse of 13.9 mJ with conversion and energy efficiencies of 26.3 % and 19.7 % respectively. Both regimes have gas temperatures estimated to be near 500 K, and there is no correlation with respect to the energy per pulse. The results suggest that the more energetic filamentary regime is not heating the gas, but rather delivering the energy towards better conversion efficiencies.To study the individual contributions of reactant temperature, pulse repetition frequency, and energy per pulse on the reforming performance of the reactor, a new high voltage pulser was developed and a preheating system capable of reaching 800 K was added. Temperature estimations show that varying the energy per pulse has a minimal effect on the temperature of the gas, while increasing the frequency heats the gas up to 777 K. Increasing reactant temperature is shown to have a negligible effect, while increasing the pulse repetition frequency has the strongest effect on conversion and energy efficiency. Additionally, the best performance is observed in partial oxidation, reaching a maximum conversion efficiency of 68.2 % and an energy efficiency of 31.5 %.The obtained results demonstrate the applicability of nanosecond repetitively-pulsed discharges as methane reformers. Capable of producing mixtures with up to 29.7 % hydrogen, these discharges can be used to increase chemical reactivity in gas turbine engine conditions as shown by the numerical simulations. This conversion is not dependent on the reactant temperature, but rather on the total amount of energy deposited by the discharge. Additionally, increasing the repetition frequency of the discharge seems to have the largest increase in efficiency, pointing towards future optimization of plasma-assisted fuel reforming technologies." --