Efficient Conversion of Ethanol to Hydrogen in a Hybrid Plasma-Catalytic Reactor

The present work describes highly efficient hydrogen production from ethanol in a plasma-catalytic reactor depending on the discharge power and catalyst bed temperature. Hydrogen production increased as the power increased from 15 to 25 W. A further power increase to 35 W did not increase hydrogen production. The catalyst was already active at a temperature of 250 degrees C, and its activity increased with increasing temperature to 450 degrees C. The further temperature increase did not increase the activity of the cobalt catalyst. The most important advantage of using the catalyst was the increased ethanol conversion to CO2 instead of CO production. As a result, the hydrogen yield was very high and reached 4.1 mol(H-2)/mol(C2H5OH). This result was obtained with a stoichiometric molar ratio of water to ethanol of 3.

Automated summary

This study investigates highly efficient hydrogen production from ethanol in a plasma-catalytic reactor. The results demonstrate that the hydrogen production is influenced by the discharge power and catalyst bed temperature. Increasing the power can enhance the hydrogen yield, while further increasing the power does not lead to further improvement. The catalyst exhibits increased activity at higher temperatures, and it efficiently converts ethanol to CO2 instead of CO, resulting in a high hydrogen yield.