Ammonia Generation and NOx Destruction via a Dielectric-Barrier Discharge Reactor

Abstract

Blends of hydrogen (H₂) and ammonia (NH₃) can potentially serve as drop-in replacements for natural gas in some power generation systems. To address adoption hurdles including the on-site generation of NH₃ and mitigation of NO_x, a dielectric-barrier discharge (DBD) reactor has been used in several different configurations. Concurrently, NO_x emissions and laminar burning velocities have been explored over a wide range of blend and equivalence ratios in a constant volume combustion chamber. The preliminary results show that the non-thermal plasma produced by the DBD reactor produces significantly more NH₃ in the presence of a catalyst and can dramatically reduce emissions of NO and NO₂.