Hydrogen production by water and methane plasma decomposition

Summary form only given, as follows. Fuel cells are considered the future of transportation. In a fuel cell, hydrogen and oxygen are consumed and produce just water as a product. In order for the fuel cells to become more competitive, the cost of hydrogen production has to be much lower. The production of hydrogen by plasma destruction of water and/or methane might prove more economical than previous methods. In these experiments a hollow copper electrode in a tubular reactor was used to produce the plasma with water and methane as the reactant gases (in balance nitrogen or argon when necessary). The water level is set at 3.1 % in all experiments. Flow rates from 4.5 to 250 mL/min were examined at a peak-to-peak voltage of 1.022 kV. The conversion to hydrogen was as high as 47% in the case of water in methane at low flow rates. But coke is seen as a major side product in this case. The admixture of nitrogen and argon yielded lower conversions. The hydrogen production was monitored by a mass spectrometer and was also attributed to some extent to water. About 12% of the conversion (at 47% conversion) is due to water. Further experiments will focus on investigating the role of water and to optimize the water content.