Dielectric Barrier Plasma Discharge Assisted Electrolysis for Sustainable Hydrogen Production from Desalination Reject
Abstract
The technology for producing hydrogen from water through the direct dissociation of water molecules using microwave dielectric barrier plasma discharge in an electrolytic solution using at different pressures has been studied and found to be a viable process for hydrogen generation. In general, higher electron temperature raises the fraction of high energy electrons above 5 eV (where 5 eV is the bonding energy between hydrogen and oxygen). It is difficult for water to be split (direct dissociation) by an atmospheric pressure thermal plasma since a high electron collision rate above a pressure of 10–50 Torr causes a very strong decrease in electron temperature due to radiative cooling, which is photon loss from the excited atoms and molecules produced by collisions with high energy electrons. Therefore to better understand the process a simulation study using MATLAB and COMSOL was conducted and validated at the lab scale. microwave dielectric barrier plasma discharge assisted hydrolysis of desalinated seawater (200 mg/l) to desalination reject (70 g/l) were tried with different electrolysis voltages from 6 V to 20 V at atmospheric pressure. The results indicated that hydrogen production is directly proportional to the electrolysis voltage and total dissolved solids in the electrolytic solution. Transmutation of the atomic nuclei of alkaline metals and the atomic nuclei of the cathode material increases the content of gases in the gas-vapor mixture and additional thermal energy is generated from the destroyed molecules of water in plasma. Desalination reject is an ideal substrate for microwave plasma-assisted hydrogen production.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
In order for IJEWFN to publish and disseminate research articles, we need publishing rights. This is determined by a publishing agreement between the author and the journal publisher. This agreement deals with the transfer or license of the copyright to IJEWFN and authors retain significant rights to use and share their own published articles. IJEWFN supports the need for authors to share, disseminate and maximize the impact of their research and these rights are defined below:
Authors sign an exclusive license agreement, where authors have copyright but license exclusive rights in their article to the publisher. In this case authors have the right to:
- Share their article in the same ways permitted to third parties under the relevant user license, as long as it contains a DOI link to the version of record.
- Retain patent, trademark and other intellectual property rights (including research data).
- Proper attribution and credit for the published work.