Reforming of Diesel Fuel by a Recirculation type Pulsed Voltage Electrohydrodynamic Atomization

An experimental investigation has been conducted to study diesel fuel reforming by a recirculation type electrohydrodynamic atomization system (REHDA). The fuel in the EHD atomization system was injected through a hollow tube electrode that was powered using a high voltage pulse power supply. A hollow ring on the ceramic holder for the hollow tube served as the ground electrode. Experiments were performed for diesel fuel with a flow rate of 4 mL/min. The fuel was recirculated through the EHD atomization system 1 to 5 times. The maximum applied voltage varied from 0 to 26 kV at a pulse repetition rate of 200 Hz. The liquid by-products from the REHDA system were analyzed using a GC. The results showed the REHDA could achieve significant cracking of the large CxHycomponents to the decane level.