Hydrogen production by microwave plasma decomposition of H₂S at atmospheric pressure with cooling implemented in its afterglow

Abstract

In this work, H2S is decomposed with use of an N2 microwave plasma torch at atmospheric pressure with the hydrogen as the main product as well as sulfur. The variation of conversion rate of H2S into hydrogen is investigated with respect to various dilution ratios of H2S in N2 carrier gas, microwave power, total flow rate, and arrangement of cooling rod in reaction chamber. And it is experimentally found that the direct cooling of the afterglow by introducing a cooled cylinder opposite to it downstream in reaction chamber takes effect in enhancement of the conversion rate of H2S to H2 and there exists an optimum for each conversion curve, which is dependent of the microwave power, gas flow rate, the relative distance of cooling rod in afterglow.