Hydrogen production from water by using hybrid gas-liquid nanosecond pulsed discharge

The efficient hydrogen production from water by using pulsed electrical discharge has been developed. In this paper, the influence of applied pulsed voltage parameters and water conditions on hydrogen production process was investigated by using gas chromatograph with thermal conductivity detector. Argon gas and distilled water were used as discharge medium, respectively. The nanosecond pulsed voltages that was formed by magnetic pulse compression circuit were applied to a needle electrode vertically-placed over water. The tree-like streamer discharge was observed between gas and water. Hydrogen production rates were proportional to applied voltage and pulse repetition rate. No significant differences in the hydrogen production rate were confirmed among the different initial water temperatures and conductivities. In this study, the peak energy efficiency of hydrogen production is approx. 1500 kJ/L.