Develpoment Of An Electronically Controlled Cold Plasma Reformer For Hydrogen Harvest From Bio-fuels

Abstract

The energy demand on the world market due to the limited resources has forced governments and scientists to find an alternative source of fuel to ease the burden on its populous and environment. Moreover, the rate of global warming is increasing with the rate of carbon dioxide released from emissions from coal burning power plants and also from vehicle exhaust. This trend of burn now and fix later has to end and a new source of fuel must be developed. Wind, solar, and even nuclear are great substitutes for reducing the global pollution but a new tangible fuel is required. Hydrogen is an excellent energy carrier and offers higher energy density per mass than gasoline and yields zero emission in the combustion process and with the recent development of fuel cell technologies, hydrogen is emerging as an attractive alternative fuel for energy applications. In this thesis, several hydrogen production methods are reviewed and the importance of cold plasma hydrogen reformer is addressed. Two different converter topologies are investigated and evaluated with iterative experimental approaches.