Reforming of ethanol in a microwave surface-wave plasma discharge

Abstract

Hydrogen production through plasma reforming of ethanol at room temperature and moderate pressure has been carried out in a microwave surface-wave reactor. Both pure ethanol and mixtures ethanol-water have been studied. The reforming yield was almost 100% in all conditions with H2, solid carbon, CO and CO2 as the main reaction products. In the mixture ethanol-water the formation of solid C was avoided. The optical emission spectroscopy analysis has shown that the formation of the excited species CO*, CH* and C depends on the plasma mixture. The temperature of the OH* species was determined by analyzing the shape profile of its emission band.