Reforming of heavy oil using nonthermal plasma

Reforming of heavy oils into light hydrocarbons has been experimentally stu died using nonthermal plasma. The purpose of this study was to improve the understanding of the parameters for optimal design of the heavy oil reformi ng plasma reactor driven by ac high voltage. The low molecular weight hydro carbons obtained constitute the NO. removal system using light olefin hydro carbons, such as ethylene and propylene as additives. In this paper, we exa mined the effect of the parameters such as gap distance of the electrodes a nd power applied. Results indicated that the reactions occurring in this he avy oil conversion process showed an important selective behavior. The majo r products obtained were hydrogen and hydrocarbon compounds with one, two, three, and four atoms of carbon, such as CH4, C2H4, C2H6, C3H6, and C4H10, ethylene being the main compound. The optimum set of values for the paramet ers studied gave rise to efficiencies on the order of 2.3 mu mol/J.