LAUSR

Abstract The paper deals with an experimental study on hydrogen production in plasma discharge induced in a flow of liquids of various chemical compositions. The two-phase flow has been created while passing a liquid medium through a hydrodynamic irradiator at high pressure. In the liquid, an ultrasonic two-phase vapor-liquid flow may occur at lower pressure due to the pressure drop and decrease in the enthalpy of the flow. Plasma discharge has been induced by the external power supply which generates electric field inside the reaction chamber. In the experiments, the reaction chambers of several sizes and shapes with different electrode placements have been investigated. Water and spirits as well as compound ethers and their mixtures with water have been used as source liquids. The experimental results have shown that low-temperature plasma induced in a liquid-phase flow in the discharge gap between electrodes could effectively decompose hydrogen-containing molecules of organic compounds in a liquid to produce gaseous products with high hydrogen content. It has been also shown that the highest process efficiency is observed while using mixtures of spirits and water as a source material. This may allow using this process in the processing of crude ethanol and other fermentation products of cheap vegetable raw materials. It has been also revealed that some few carbon nanoparticles and nanoparticles of the discharge electrode oxide materials may be also formed in plasma during decomposition of the organic compounds.