Title :
Decomposition of Ethane in Atmospheric-Pressure Dielectric-Barrier Discharges: Experiments
Author :
Rosocha, Louis A. ; Kim, Yongho ; Anderson, Graydon K. ; Lee, Jae Ok ; Abbate, Sara
Author_Institution :
Los Alamos Nat. Lab., NM
Abstract :
It is well known that electric fields can influence combustion processes. When the magnitude of an external applied electric field exceeds the breakdown field of the fuel gas or fuel/oxidizer mixture, plasma effects dominate. The earlier work in the field of plasma-assisted combustion has demonstrated that dielectric-barrier-discharge (DBD)-driven nonthermal plasmas (NTPs) can increase flame speed and extend the combustion of hydrocarbon fuel gases into very lean-burn regimes. In this paper, results on the decomposition of ethane (C2H6) by DBDs at atmospheric pressure will be presented. The authors have chosen ethane for this paper because its gaseous electronics properties (electron-impact dissociation cross sections, drift velocity) are available in the literature. A subsequent paper will present results on the calculated yield of DBD-driven plasma decomposition products of ethane, as predicted by plasma-chemistry modeling. In this paper, results on experiments carried out to determine the decomposition products of ethane, as measured by gas chromatography are presented. An atmospheric-pressure DBD reactor processed a flowing gas stream of chemically pure ethane in the regime of plasma specific energy ranging from 1200 to 2400 J/std lit. The major stable decomposition products were H2, CH4, C2H2, and C2H4. These results are important in assessing the possibility of using NTPs to enhance the combustion of hydrocarbons
Keywords :
chromatography; combustion; discharges (electric); electron impact dissociation; flames; organic compounds; plasma chemistry; reaction kinetics theory; atmospheric pressure; atmospheric-pressure dielectric-barrier discharges; drift velocity; electron-impact dissociation; ethane decomposition; fuel-oxidizer mixture; gas chromatography; hydrocarbon fuel gases; nonthermal plasmas; plasma specific energy; plasma-assisted combustion; plasma-chemistry modeling; Atmospheric-pressure plasmas; Combustion; Dielectrics; Electric breakdown; Fires; Fuels; Hydrocarbons; Plasma chemistry; Plasma measurements; Plasma properties; Combustion; dielectric-barrier discharges (DBDs); gas discharges; plasma applications;
Journal_Title :
Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TPS.2006.886085