Effects of Air/H2O Discharge Plasma on Propane Combustion Enhancement Using Dielectric Barrier Discharges

Combustion provides about 80% energy for our daily life and industrial production. But thermal efficiency of traditional combustion technologies is low, which causes energy waste and serious environmental pollution. In order to improve the combustion efficiency, a combined method based on non-equilibrium plasma generated by dielectric barrier discharge and OH radicals coming from water-steam additive was proposed in this work, and plasma assisted propane combustion was examined and evaluated. The results indicated that when relative humidity (RH) was 20% and applied peak voltage was fixed at 8.75 kV, the relative intensity of OH radical and the flame temperature reached the maximum value at the flame root. At the same time, propane combustion was the most complete. In addition, we found that the erosion of the inner electrode was weakened by H₂O addition, and the symmetry of discharge current was changed from symmetry to asymmetry with the increase of RH. Compared with the pure air undischarged combustion, when the relative humidity was 20% and under the discharge conditions of 8.75 kV, the lean-burn extinction limit was extended to 0.4,which is far lower than the traditional lean-burn limit (0.51).