Experimental and theoretical study of exhaust gas fuel reforming of Diesel fuel by a non-thermal arc discharge for syngas production

Alexandre Lebouvier (1, 2) , François Fresnet (2) , Frédéric Fabry (1) , Valérie Boch (2) , Vandad-Julien Rohani (1) , François Cauneau (1) , Laurent Fulcheri (3)

1 CEP - Centre Énergétique et Procédés
2 Technocentre Renault [Guyancourt]
3 CEP/Sophia

An experimental set-up has been developed to study two typical operating points of Diesel powered vehicle, corresponding to high load and low load points. A sensibility study over O/C ratio, injected electric current and mass flow rate have been carried out. The plasma reformer performances have been evaluated in terms of energy efficiency and conversion rate. At low engine load, an energy efficiency of 40% and a conversion rate of 95% have been reached which correspond to a syngas dry molar fraction of 25%. For the most favorable case, only 12 s are needed to regenerate the NOx trap catalyst. The 1D multistage kinetic model developed has shown good trend correlation with experimental results. It has been demonstrated that the oxygen from CO2 and H2O almost does not intervene in the exhaust gas Diesel fuel reforming. At the contrary, CO2 and H2O decrease temperatures, the kinetic reaction speed and the energy efficiency compared to POx reaction. To higher the temperature, more oxygen is needed but local combustion can happen and promote H2O and CO2 production.

Mots clés: Plasma reformer; syngas; diesel fuel reforming; NOx trap

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]; Energétique

Alexandre Lebouvier, François Fresnet, Frédéric Fabry, Valérie Boch, Vandad-Julien Rohani, et al.. Experimental and theoretical study of exhaust gas fuel reforming of Diesel fuel by a non-thermal arc discharge for syngas production. 20th International Symposium on Plasma Chemistry - ISPC20, Jul 2011, Philadelphia, United States. 4 p. ⟨hal-00617432⟩