Hydrogen production from ethanol using low energy pulse discharge at ambient temperature

The steam reforming of ethanol at room temperature and 1 atm was studied using low energy pulse (LEP) discharge. Characteristic novel reformer, wherein one electrode was made of carbon fibers (7 fým OD) bundle, was employed. When using this reformer, the fuel was evaporated by heat emission from electrode, and then the vaporized reactants were reacted. Produced gaseous compounds were collected from upper part of the reactor, H₂ and other compounds (CO, CH₄, CO₂, C₂H₄, and C₂H₆) were produced, and the formation rates were increased in proportion to the increase of the gap distance and input power. The energy efficiency has reached 41.7% at the ethanol concentration of 50%, the discharge gap of 3 mm. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 228th ACS National Meeting (Philadelphia, PA, 8/22-26/2004).