Plasma kinetics in ethanol/water/air mixture in a ‘tornado’-type electrical discharge

This paper presents the results of a theoretical and experimental study of plasma-assisted reforming of ethanol into molecular hydrogen in a modified ‘tornado’-type electrical discharge. Numerical modelling clarifies the nature of non-thermal conversion and explains the kinetic mechanism of non-equilibrium plasma chemical transformations in the gas–liquid system and the evolution of hydrogen during the reforming as a function of discharge parameters and ethanol-to-water ratio in the mixture. We also propose a scheme of chemical reactions for plasma kinetics description. It is shown that some characteristics of the investigated reactor are at least not inferior to the characteristics of other plasma chemical reactors.