Plasma-Catalytic Reforming of Biofuels and Diesel Fuel

The replacement of fossil hydrocarbons with the renewable biomass alternatives is an inevitable requirement in our transition toward a sustainable economy. However, traditional petrochemical technologies are not designed to operate using biomass raw materials. Thus, the development of new hydrocarbon processing methods is essential. This paper deals with the study of the hybrid plasma-catalytic reforming of liquid hydrocarbons. The system for the reforming of liquid hydrocarbons, which used low-power rotating gliding discharge as a plasma generator, was studied. Sunflower oil (C
₁₇
H
₃₃
COOH) and ethanol (C
₂
H
₅
OH) have been used as model oxygen-containing hydrocarbons and diesel fuel (C
₁₆
H
₃₄
) has been used as a model hydrocarbon without oxygen. Reforming products have been analyzed using mass spectrometry and gas chromatography, and the combustion of produced syngas was studied. The values of the reforming efficiency, the ratio between the chemical energy of the produced syngas and the electric energy spent on the plasma generation, and the efficiency of the produced syngas combustion in the standard water heaters were obtained.