Other Fossil Fuel Plasmas

The production of hydrogen from methane is important because it has a low environmental impact. The production of hydrogen via steam reforming has a H2/C02 ratio of 4 (Table 1), the lowest C02 impact of any fossil fuel source. The dc plasma system produces a H2/C02 ratio of about 1000 in the effluent stream. However, CO is a major product of the system. If the water-gas shift reaction were used to convert all of the produced CO into C02 via reaction [5], the resulting H2/C02 ratio would be approximately 9 for either system. This value is still considerably better than that of other fossil fuels, including steam reforming. 

Several spectroscopic methods have been used to monitor the levels of heavy metals in man, fossil fuels and environment. They include flame atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS), atomic emission spectroscopy (AES), graphite furnace atomic absorption sp>ectrometry (GFAAS), inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission sp>ectroscopy (ICP/AES), inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP/MS), x-ray fluorescence sp>ectroscopy (XRFS), isotope dilution mass spectrometry (IDMS), electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) e.t.c. Also other spectroscopic methods have been used for analysis of the quality composition of the alternative fuels such as biodiesel. These include Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), Near infrared spectroscopy (NIR), inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) e.t.c. 

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