Plasma Chemical Synthesis of Valuable Fuels and Chemicals from <i>n</i>-Hexane and Its Mixture with Methanol and Ethanol
Avishek Banerjee, Andrew Golsztajn, Pierre‐Luc Girard‐Lauriault
Abstract
Among several emerging technologies that are focused on finding sustainable routes for reforming heavy oils and/or alcohols into valuable fuels and complex chemicals, non-thermal plasma shows promise both due to its non-equilibrium nature and its ability to use intermittent renewable electricity. In this work, we investigate its interaction with organic compounds as a “green” process for simultaneously synthesizing hydrogen, cracking heavy oils, and producing more valuable, complex chemicals. A pin-to-plate microsecond-pulsed argon plasma was used at temperatures of 20, 0, and −20 °C. Using 390 kJ/kg of specific energy input, we were able to achieve a conversion efficiency of 771.4 mmol/kW h for the treatment of the hexane–ethanol mixture at 0 °C. It is concluded that the production of H2 and other lower fuels (gas hydrocarbons) can be increased by the addition of alcohols in our reforming processes. At 0 °C, the production efficiency and selectivity of gas products were found to be higher compared to other temperatures. A low temperature of −20 °C showed the highest production efficiency for liquid products. Product formation was observed to mainly undergo dissociation and dehydrogenation, whose reaction pathway is also discussed.