In this paper, the plasma discharge in a high-pressure fluid stream in order to produce gaseous hydrogen was studied. Methods and equipment have been developed for the excitation of a plasma discharge in a stream of liquid medium. The fluid flow under excessive pressure is directed to a hydrodynamic emitter located at the reactor inlet where a supersonic two-phase vapor-liquid flow under reduced pressure is formed in the liquid due to the pressure drop and decrease in the flow enthalpy. Electrodes are located in the reactor where an electric field is created using an external power source (the strength of the field exceeds the breakdown threshold of this two-phase medium) leading to theinitiation of a low-temperature glow quasi-stationary plasma discharge.A theoretical estimation of the parameters of this type of discharge has been carried out. It is shown that the lowtemperature plasma initiated under the flow conditions of a liquid-phase medium in the discharge gap between the electrodes can effectively decompose the hydrogen-containing molecules of organic compounds in a liquid with the formation of gaseous products where the content of hydrogen is more than 90%. In the process simulation, theoretical calculations of the voltage and discharge current were also made which are in good agreement with the experimental data. The reaction unit used in the experiments was of a volume of 50 ml and reaction capacity appeared to be about 1.5 liters of hydrogen per minute when using a mixture of oxygen-containing organic compounds as a raw material. During their decomposition in plasma, solid-phase products are also formed in insignificant amounts: carbon nanoparticles and oxide nanoparticles of discharge electrode materials.
Decomposition of Organic Compounds by Microwave-induced Plasma in Liquid Phase
