Hydrogen production from partial oxidation of dimethyl ether by plasma-catalyst reforming

Hydrogen was produced from partial oxidation reforming of DME (dimethyl ether) by spark discharge plasma at atmospheric pressure. A plasma-catalyst reformer was designed. A series of experiments were carried out to investigate its performance of hydrogen-rich gas production. The effects of reaction temperature, catalyst and flow rate on gas concentrations (volume fraction), hydrogen yield, DME conversion ratio, specific energy consumption and thermal efficiency were investigated, respectively. The experimental results show that hydrogen concentration and the flow rate of produced H₂ are improved when temperature increases from 300 C to 700 C. Hydrogen yield, hydrogen concentration and the flow rate of produced H₂ are substantially improved in the use of Fe-based catalyst at high temperature. Moreover, hydrogen yield and thermal efficiency are improved and change slightly when flow rate increases. When catalyst is 12 g, and flow rate increases from 35 mL/min to 210 mL/min, hydrogen yield decreases from 66.4% to 57.7%, and thermal efficiency decreases from 35.6% to 30.9%. It is anticipated that the results would serve as a good guideline to the application of hydrogen generation from hydrocarbon fuels by plasma reforming onboard.