Thermal Plasma Gasification of Biomass

49

Fig. 9. Gasification rate of wood particles in dependence on reactor temperature for various
particle diameters
It can be seen that the particle diameter substantially influences both the surface
temperature and the gasification rate. Increase of the diameter results in reduction of heat
transfer to the particle due to more intensive shielding of the particle by gas sheath formed
from volatilized material. From the dependence of process rate on the size of particles a
relation between throughput and minimum volume of the reactor can be estimated. The
relation between total volume of particles of given diameter and gasification rate can be
calculated from the equations (10) – (14). In Fig. 10 the ratio of total volume of particles to
material throughput is plotted in dependence on reactor temperature for several particle
diameters. A minimum reactor volume needed for given material throughput can be
determined from these dependences assuming that reactor volume should be several times

800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800
Reactor gas temperature [
0
C]
0.01
0.1
1
10
100
V/M
feed

[m

and oxygen if air or nitrogen are used as plasma gases [Rutberg 2004, Zasypkin 2001]. The
usage of mixtures of inert gas with hydrogen [Zhao 2001, Zhao 2003] eliminates this
disadvantage but it increases the cost. In [Kezelis 2004] biomass was gasified in steam
plasma, the usage of produced syngas as plasma gas in a special plasma torch is planned in
[Brothier 2007]. This chapter presents the experimental results obtained in medium scale
thermal plasma gasification reactor equipped by the gas-water dc plasma torch with arc
power up to 160 kW.
4.1 Plasma gasification reactor
The experiments were performed on plasma reactor PLASGAS equipped by plasma torch with
a dc arc stabilized by combination of argon flow and water vortex. The scheme of the
experimental system is shown in Fig. 11. The torch power could be adjusted in the range of 90 -
160 kW. Power loss to the reactor walls was reduced by the inner lining of the reactor, which
was made of special refractory ceramics with the thickness of 400 mm. The wall temperature
1100
0
to 1400
o
C could be regulated by the torch power and feeding rate of the material. Inner
volume of the reactor was 0.22 m
3
. All parts of the reactor chamber were water-cooled and
calorimetric measurements on cooling circuits were made. The material container was
equipped with a continuous screw conveyer with controlled material feeding rate. Treated
material was supplied into the reactor and was fed into plasma jet in the position about 30 cm
downstream of the input plasma entrance nozzle at the reactor top. Inputs for additional gases
for control of reactor atmosphere were at three positions in the upper part of the reactor. The
gas produced in the reactor flowed through the connecting tube to the quenching chamber,
which was created by a cylinder with the length of 2 m. At the upper entrance of the cylinder
the gas was quenched by a spray of water from the nozzle, positioned at the top of the
cylinder. The water flow rate in the spray was automatically controlled to keep the

gas can contain some amount of steam which could after condensation block or damage the
inputs of the mass spectrometer, the freezing unit was connected into the gas sample circuit.
Additional analyses of the composition of the produced syngas and the content of tar were
made on samples of gas taken during the experiment by means of mass spectroscopy with
cryofocusing, gas and liquid chromatography and FT infrared spectroscopy. Samples for
tests of presence of tar in the gas were taken from the tube between the reactor and the
quenching chamber. The samples were captured on the DSC-NH2 adsorbend or silica gel
and analyzed by gas and liquid chromatography. The content of tar was below the
sensitivity of the method, which was 1 mg/Nm
3
.

Progress in Biomass and Bioenergy Production

52
4.2 Plasma generator with hybrid water/gas arc stabilization
Plasma was produced in the torch with a dc arc stabilized by combination of argon flow and
water vortex. The torch generates an oxygen-hydrogen-argon plasma jet with extremely high
plasma enthalpy and temperature. Typical arrangement of arc chamber with gas/water
stabilization is shown in Fig. 12. The cathode part of the torch is arranged similarly like in gas
torches. Gas is supplied along tungsten cathode tip, vortex component of gas flow that is
injected tangentially, assures proper stabilization of arc in the cathode nozzle. Gas plasma
flows through the nozzle to the second part of arc chamber, where arc column is surrounded
by a water vortex. The chamber is divided into several sections, where water is injected
tangentially. The inner diameter of the vortex is determined by the diameter of the holes in the
segments between the sections. The sections with tangential water injection are separated by
two exhaust gaps, where water is exhausted out of the arc chamber. Interaction of the arc
column with the water vortex causes evaporation from the inner surface of the vortex. The
steam mixes with the plasma flowing from the cathode section. An anode is created by a
rotating copper disc with internal water cooling. Thus the arc column is composed of three

Thermal Plasma Gasification of Biomass

53
enthalpies for dc arc torches are shown in Fig. 13. Figure 14 presents enthalpies of steam
plasma compared with mixtures of nitrogen and argon with hydrogen, which are commonly
used in gas plasma torches. High enthalpy of steam plasma represents capacity of plasma to
carry energy. The other positive property of steam plasma for plasma processing is high
heat conductivity. Thus, extreme properties of plasma jets generated in water stabilized and
hybrid stabilized arc torches follows both from the properties of steam plasma and from the
way of stabilization of arc by water vortex.
0246
m
a
s
s
f
l
o
w
r
a
t
e
[
g
/
s

100
200
300
400
plasma enthalpy h [MJ/kg]
steam
nitrogen/hydrogen (2:1)
argon/hydrogen (3/1)

Fig. 14. Plasma enthalpy in dependence on temperature for steam and mixtures
nitrogen/hydrogen (2:1 vol.) and argon hydrogen (3:1 vol.).

Progress in Biomass and Bioenergy Production

54
stabilized arc section is almost completely controlled by steam inflow and the arc in this
section has electrical characteristics and power balances that are very close to the ones of
water-stabilized torches. The power thus increases rapidly with mass flow rate as in the case
of water torch (blue part of characteristics in Fig. 13).
High temperature plasma jet with high flow velocity is generated in the hybrid plasma
torch. The centreline plasma flow velocity at the torch exit, which is increasing with both the
arc current and the argon flow rate, ranges approximately from 1800 m/s to 7000 m/s. The
centerline exit temperature is almost independent of argon flow rate and varies between 14
kK and 22 kK. In Fig. 15 measured profiles of plasma temperature for arc power 70 kW and
96 kW are presented. Temperature is increasing with arc current but does not depend much
on argon flow rate, because thermal plasma parameters are determined by processes in
water stabilized (Gerdien) arc part. Fig. 15 presents temperature profiles measured at
position 2 mm downstream of torch nozzle. With increasing distance from the nozzle
plasma jet temperature rapidly decreases due to mixing of plasma with ambient gas and
due to intensive radial heat transfer to the jet surrounding.

and O
2
) and averaged temperature T
r

in the reactor. The temperature T
r
given in the table is averaged temperature of the reactor Thermal Plasma Gasification of Biomass

55
torch power feed rate
CO
2
O
2
T
r
syngas
H
2
CO CO2 O2 Ar CH4 calorific value
[kW] [kg/h] [slm] [slm] [K]
[m
3
/h]
%%%%%% [kW]
104 6.9 43 10 1360 7.13 27.7 60.8 5.4 0.7 4.9 0.5 21.11

test runs syngas with high concentrations of hydrogen and carbon monoxide was
obtained. The concentration of CO
2
and CH
4
were small especially for higher feeding rates
and higher flow rates of gases added for oxidation of surplus of carbon. The last column
of Table 2 presents heating values of syngas calculated from the composition. It can be
seen that the values of LHV and the composition are close to the results of equilibrium
calculations.

Test Parameters Added gases Syngas Composition

Feed
[kg/h]
T
r
[K]
Power
[kW]
CO
2

[slm]
O
2
[slm]
H
2
%


56
temperature was 1100
o
C. Under these conditions the change of wall temperature in the
range of 1100 to 1450
o
C does not influence the flow rate and the composition of the
produced gas, as can be seen in Tables 1 and 2.
The composition of produced gas was only slightly influenced by the material feeding rate
and the power and was controlled by the ratio of mass of oxygen in supplied gases (O
2
,
CO
2
), added for complete oxidation of carbon, to the feed rate of material. This is illustrated
in Fig. 16 where molar fractions of gas components are plotted in dependence on ratio of
oxygen mass flow rate to the material feed rate.

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
ox
y
g
en mass
r
atio
0
20
40
60

and CO
2
.

Thermal Plasma Gasification of Biomass

57
carbon including supplied gas species are plotted in dependence on ratio of mass of oxygen
added into the reactor in the gas species (O
2
and CO
2
) to the mass of wood. The carbon
yield, defined on the basis of mass of wood, can be higher than 1 as carbon from supplied
gas (CO
2
) is added to syngas. It can be seen that for higher feeding rates almost all carbon
was gasified. Lower values of carbon yield for lower material feeding rates are probably
related to weak mixing of plasma with material and thus less intensive energy transfer to
the material. The mixing is more intensive at higher feeding rates due to substantially higher
amount of gas produced in the reactor volume at high feeding rates. The flow within the
reactor is almost completely controlled by material gasification, especially for higher feeding
rates, because the amount of gas produced by gasification is up to 120 Nm
3
/h while the flow
rate of plasma from the torch is 1.34 Nm
3
/h.
The energy spent for the gasification of material at different feeding rates is shown in Fig.
18 in dependence on the feeding rate. Fig. 18 also gives the values of ratio of heating value

content of tar was lower than 10 mg/Nm
3
, which was under the detection limit of used
TCD. This occurred even with toluene, and it is obvious that concentration of tar in
produced gas is really low in comparison with other gasification technologies. Especially in
the case of lower feeding rates of treated material the tar content was minimal. Low tar
content is caused mainly by the high temperatures in the reactor and the fast quenching as
well as by high level of uv radiation in the entrance of output gas tube, which was
positioned close to the input for plasma jet.

Progress in Biomass and Bioenergy Production

58
Plasma torch power [kW] 107 107 107
CO
2
flow rate [slm] 5 10 60
Humidity of treated wood [w/w] 20.2 20.2 20.2
Wood flow rate [kg/hour] 10 20 50
Benzene [mg/Nm
3
] 1,5 2,7 116,2
Toluene < 1 mg/Nm
3

Tar - SPE < 10 mg/Nm
3

Table 3. Content of benzene, toluene and tar in produced syngas.
Besides experiments with wood saw dust, gasification of several other organic materials was

4 449 137 wood 25,2 125 1341
5 449 137 wood 25,2 86 133
7
6 450 140 pellets 30 64 1493
7450 140
p
ellets 30 248 138
3
8 450 140 pellets 60 248 1286
9 446 140 PE 5,3 2 10 80 153
9
10 4 46 140 PE 10,6 210 80 1559
11 448 131 plastics 11,2 300 1397

Table 4. Experimenal conditions and input parameters for several materials.
It can be seen that syngas with high concentrations of hydrogen and carbon monoxide was
obtained in all runs. The CO
2
concentrations were small especially for wood saw dust and
wood pelets (runs 4, 5, 7, 8), concentration of CH
4
was very low in all runs. Oxidation with
CO
2
and O
2
led to the same composition (runs 1,2). Surplus of oxygen (run 3) resulted in
increase of concentration of CO and reduction of H
2
, probably due to formation of H

5
42,5 14,
9
1,0 0,1 0,9
3 wood 34,6 51,4 12,6 0 ,4 1,0 1 ,0
4wood 41,
5
54,1 3,3 0,3 0,
8
1,0
5
wood 43,
6
52,0 3,3 0,3 0,
8
1,0
6
pellets 4 8,1 40,0 11,0 0,1 0,
8
0,7
7 pellets 36,5 59,1 3,4 0,1 1,0 0,8
8
pellets 4 1,
5
52,7 4,8 0,2 0,
8
0,8
9 PE 29,9 41,3 27,1 0,0 1,7 1,0
10 PE 35,
3

total power spent for process of gasification were determined from current and voltage

Progress in Biomass and Bioenergy Production

60
measurements and calorimetric measurements on cooling circuits of the system. Power
spent for dissociation of CO
2
was calculated from flow rate of added CO
2
, power
corresponding to low heating value of syngas was calculated from measured composition
and flow rate of syngas. Heating value of produced syngas is more than two times higher
than power of the torch.
It can be seen that in case of gasification with CO
2
most of power needed for production of
syngas was dissociation power of CO
2
. Energy needed for dissociation of CO
2
is deposited
in calorific value of produced syngas. The process thus can act as an energy storage –
electrical energy is transferred to plasma energy and then stored in produced syngas. This
can be used for storage of energy produced by new renewable sources of electrical energy
that are often characterized by large fluctuations of energy production. Moreover, the
process offers utilization and transformation of CO
2
produced by industrial technologies.
5. Conclusions

supplied material was gasified. Heating value of produced syngas was for the highest
material feed rates more than two times of power of plasma torch. In case of gasification
with carbon dioxide as oxidizing medium, most of power needed for gasification process
was power for dissociation of CO
2
. The process can be used as an energy storage – electrical
energy is transferred to plasma energy and then stored in produced syngas. This can be
utilized for storage of energy produced by sources of electrical energy with large
fluctuations of energy production. Moreover, the process offers utilization and
transformation of CO
2
generated by industrial technologies.
If energy balances of plasma gasification are compared with the conventional autothermal
reactors, where only very low power is supplied to ignite the process of partial combustion,

Thermal Plasma Gasification of Biomass

61
the energy gain in plasma systems is smaller. However, the LHV of produced syngas for
autothermal reactors is usually between 35% and 60% of its theoretical value, and moreover,
quality of produced syngas is low especially due to the production of tars and other
contaminants. Thus, plasma can offer advantages if high quality syngas with high heating
value is needed. Moreover, possibility of electrical energy storage can be utilized in
combination with new renewable power production technologies.
6. Acknowledgment
The author gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Grant Agency of the Czech
Republic under the project No. 205/11/2070.
7. References
Bird, R.B.; Stewart, W.E., Lightfoot, E.N. 2002. Transport Phenomena. J. Willey&Sons, Inc.,
New York/Chichester/Weinheim/Brisbane/Singapore/Toronto.

processing of hydrocarbonic raw material with syngas production. J. of High Temp.
Mat. Process., 8: 433-446.
Tang L.; Huang H. 2005. Plasma pyrolysis of biomass for production of syngas and carbon
adsorbent. ENERGY & FUELS, 19: 1174-1178.

Progress in Biomass and Bioenergy Production

62
Tang L.; Huang H. 2005. Biomass gasification using capacitively coupled RF plasma
technology. Fuel, 84: 2055–2063.
Tu, Wen-Kai et al. 2008. Pyrolysis of rice straw using radio-frequency plasma.
ENERGY&FUELS, 22: 24-30.
Xiu S.N.; Yi W.M., Li B.M. 2005. Flash pyrolysis of agricultural residues using a plasma
heated laminar entrained flow reactor. BIOMASS BIOENERG, 29: 135-141.
Zasypkin I.M.; Nozdrenko G.V. 2001. Production of acetylene and synthesis gas from coal
by plasma chemical methods. Thermal Plasma Torches and Technologies, Vol II., ed.
O.P. Solonenko, Cambridge Interscience Publish.: 234-243.
Zhao Z.L.; Huang H.T., Wu C.Z., Li H.B., Chen Y. 2001. Biomass pyrolysis in an
argon/hydrogen plasma reactor. Chem. Engineering & Technology, 24: 197-199.
Zhao Z.L. 2003. Plasma gasification of biomass in a downflow reactor. Abstract of Papers of
the American Chemical Society, 226: U536-U536 048-FUEL Part 1.
4
Numerical Investigation of
Hybrid-Stabilized Argon-Water
Electric Arc Used for Biomass Gasification

J. Jeništa
1
, H. Takana
2

performance characteristics; such as high outlet plasma velocities (up to 7 000 m⋅ s
-1
),
temperatures (~ 30 000 K), plasma enthalpy and, namely, high powder throughput,
compared to commonly used gas-stabilized (Ar, He) torches (Hrabovský et al., 1997). In a
water-stabilized arc, the stabilizing wall is formed by the inner surface of water vortex
which is created by tangential water injection under high pressure (~ 10 atm.) into the arc
chamber. Evaporation of water is induced by the absorption of a fraction of Joule power
dissipated within the conducting arc core. Further heating and ionization of the steam are
the principal processes which produce water plasma. The continuous inflow and heating
lead to an overpressure and plasma is accelerated towards the nozzle exit. The arc
properties are thus controlled by the radial energy transport from the arc core to the walls
and by the processes influencing evaporation of the liquid wall.
A combination of gas and vortex stabilization has been utilized in the so-called hybrid-
stabilized electric arc, its principle is shown in Fig.1. In the hybrid H
2
O-Ar plasma arc the
discharge chamber is divided into the short cathode part where the arc is stabilized by
tangential argon flow in the axial direction, and the longer part which is water-vortex-
stabilized. This arrangement not only provides additional stabilization of the cathode region
and protection of the cathode tip, but also offers the possibility of controlling plasma jet
characteristics in wider range than that of pure gas or liquid-stabilized torches (Březina et
al., 2001; Hrabovský et al., 2003). The arc is attached to the external water-cooled rotating
disc anode a few mm downstream of the torch orifice. The characteristics of the hybrid-
stabilized electric arc were measured and the effect of gas properties and flow rate on
plasma properties and gas-dynamic flow characteristics of the plasma jet were studied.
Experiments (Březina et al., 2001; Hrabovský et al., 2006) proved that plasma mass flow rate,

Progress in Biomass and Bioenergy Production


previous investigation (Jeništa, 2004; Jeništa et al., 2007), a special attention is devoted to the
flow structure and temperature field in the discharge when the local Mach number is higher
than one. Our former results indicated the possibility (Jeništa, 2004) and also proved the
existence (Jeništa et al., 2008) of supersonic flow regime for currents higher or equal to 500
A. In addition, a detailed comparison of the calculated results with experiments is presented
in this study.
Numerical Investigation of
Hybrid-Stabilized Argon-Water Electric Arc Used for Biomass Gasification

65
Section 2 gives information about the model assumptions, plasma properties, boundary conditions
and the numerical scheme. Section 3 reveals the most important findings such as thermal and
fluid dynamic characteristics of plasma within the discharge and in the near-outlet regions,
along with power losses from the arc and comparison of calculated results (temperature and
velocity profiles near the nozzle exit) with experiments. Fig. 2. The plasma spraying torch WSP
®
H with hybrid stabilization (left), i.e. the combined
stabilization of arc by axial gas flow (Ar or N
2
) and water vortex. The external rotating disk
anode is made of copper. Images of plasma jets produced by WSP
®
H (right) from the
mixture of steam and argon for different operational conditions: 300 A and 24 slm of argon
(top), spraying of Cu particles at 500 A and 36 slm of argon (middle), supersonic jet at 300 A,
12 slm of argon at 10 kPa of surrounding atmosphere (bottom).
2. Physical model and numerical implementation

stability of the arc. Since water flows in a closed circuit, it is also exhausted at two
positions along the arc chamber.
In order to see the flow structure near the outlet, we included in our calculation domain
also the near-outlet region which extends up to 20 mm from the nozzle exit. In
experiment, the distance from the nozzle exit to the anode can be changed from 5 to 20
mm. It can be expected that regions close to the nozzle exit will remain undisturbed by
the presence of the anode, while the more distant regions (15-20 mm) will be influenced
by 3D effects (the anode jet and anode processes), provided the anode is placed
somewhere 20 mm from the nozzle exit.
It comes out from these considerations that the two-dimensional assumption is valid in
major part of the domain due to a) cylindrical symmetry of the discharge chamber
setup, b) tangential injection of water through the holes along the circumference, and c)
the flexible distance between the nozzle exit and anode.
Numerical Investigation of
Hybrid-Stabilized Argon-Water Electric Arc Used for Biomass Gasification

67
2. The assumption of laminar flow is based on experiments, showing the laminar structure
of the plasma flowing out of the discharge chamber in the space between the nozzle exit
and the anode. The laminar flow has been observed for currents up to 600 A. It comes
out from our previous calculation that Reynolds number based on the outlet diameter 6
mm reaches in the axial region 13 000 at maximum and decreases to 300 in arc fringes.
The type of flow inside the discharge chamber is questionable since no diagnostics is
able to see inside the chamber and it is not clear if the laminar plasma stream is a result
of laminarization of the plasma flow at the outlet. To check possible deviations from the
laminar model, we have employed Large Eddy Simulation (LES) with the Smagorinsky
sub-grid scale model. It was proved that simulations for laminar and turbulent regimes
give nearly the same results, so that the plasma flow can be considered more or less
laminar for the operating conditions and simplified discharge geometry in the present
study. The maximum detected discrepancy between the turbulent and laminar models

pu
uuvuu jB rv
tr z z zrrz
uuv
r
zzrr rz
ρρ ρ μ
μμ
θ



∂∂ ∂ ∂ ∂
∂∂
++=−+− ++



∂∂ ∂ ∂ ∂∂∂






  
∂∂∂
∂∂
++



∂∂ ∂ ∂ ∂
∂∂
++=−−− +++


∂∂ ∂ ∂ ∂∂∂




  
∂∂∂
∂∂
−+ +

  
∂∂ ∂∂∂

  

(3)
energy equation:

() ()
()()
1
1
rr rz rz zz r r z z
eTT

charge continuity equation:

1
0r
rr r z z
σσ
∂∂Φ∂∂Φ

+=

∂∂∂∂

(5)
equation of state:

g
p
RT
ρ
= . (6)
Here
z and r are the axial and radial coordinates, u , v and w are the axial, radial and
tangential components of the velocity respectively,
ρ
is the mass density,
μ
is the viscosity
(in the case of LES model, the turbulent contribution
turb
μ

j

from the Ohm’s
law
j
E
σ
=⋅


.
2.2 Properties of argon-water plasma mixture
The water–argon mixture can be described by the formula
()
2
1
()
q
q
HO Ar
−
where the argon
molar amounts q were chosen from 0 to 1 with the step of 0.1. The total number of 35
chemical species was considered (Křenek, 2008). For the temperature range 400 – 20 000
K we supposed the following decomposition products:
e (electrons), H , O , Ar ,
O
+
,
2

+
,
3
H
+
, OH ,
OH
+
,
OH
−
,
2
HO ,
2
HO
−
,
2
HO,
2
HO
+
,
3
HO
+
,
22
HO ,

+
,
5
O
+
,
6
O
+
, H
+
,
A
r
+
,
2
A
r
+
,
3
A
r
+
,
4
A
r
+

Hybrid-Stabilized Argon-Water Electric Arc Used for Biomass Gasification

69
calculation are O (93 lines), O
+
(296),
2
O
+
(190), Ar (739), Ar
+
(2781),
2
Ar
+
(403),
3
Ar
+

(73). In addition, molecular bands of
2
O (Schuman-Runge system),
2
H (Lyman and Verner
systems), OH (transition
22
i
AX
+

profile
()
,0Trz= is pre-calculated from the axial momentum equation under the
assumption of fully developed flow.
b.
Axis of symmetry (BC). The zero radial velocity and symmetry conditions for the
temperature, axial velocity and electric potential are specified here, i.e.
0Tr ur r∂ ∂=∂ ∂=∂Φ∂=
, 0v = .
c.
Arc gas outlet plane (CD). The zero electric potential 0Φ= (the reference value) and zero
axial derivatives of the temperature and radial velocity are defined at CD,
0Tz vz∂∂=∂∂=
. Values of the axial velocity are interpolated from the inner grid
points.
d.
Arc gas outlet plane (DE). The zero radial velocity and zero radial derivatives of the
temperature, axial velocity and electric potential are defined here,
0Tr ur r∂ ∂=∂ ∂=∂Φ∂=
, 0v = . Pressure is fixed at 1 atmosphere, p = 1 atm.
e.
Outlet wall and the nozzle (EF). We specify no slip conditions for velocities, 0uv==,
constant values of
r
E
and
z
E
(
0zr∂Φ ∂ = ∂Φ ∂ =

(350 A), 0.315 g s
-1
(400 A), 0.329 g s
-1

(500 A), 0.363 g s
-1
(600 A). The magnitude of the radial inflow velocity is calculated
from the definition of mass flow rate
()
()
2,
z
m
vR
RRzz
πρ
Δ
=
Δ


,
where
()
,Rzρ is a function of pressure and thus dependent on the axial position z ,
zΔ is the distance between the neighboring grid points.
Because of practically zero current density in cold vapor region (no current goes outside
of the lateral domain edges), the radial component of the electric field strength is put zero,
i.e.,

, u
ρ

, e and Φ .
Pressure is determined from the pressure dependence of the internal energy
()()
2
,,0.5U
p
Te
p
Tu=−ρ

and temperature is calculated from the equation of state (6)
()
,
g
p
RpTT
ρ
=⋅
, using the pre-calculated values of the product
()
,
g
RpTT⋅
as a function
of temperature, pressure and argon molar fraction in the mixture (Křenek, 2008).
The computer program is written in the FORTRAN language. The task has been solved on
an oblique structured grid with nonequidistant spacing. The total number of grid points was

-1
and 40 slm of argon. The
partial characteristics method for radiation losses is employed. The results shown here
demonstrate the largest magnitude fluctuations of velocity, temperature, pressure and the
Mach number just after the jet exhausts from the torch nozzle among all the studied currents
and argon mass flow rates. Supersonic flow structure in the near-outlet region is obvious
with clearly distinguished shock diamonds with the maximum Mach number about 1.6 with
10 500 m s
-1
. The corresponding velocity and the Mach number maxima overlap with the
temperature and pressure minima and vice versa. Since the pressure decreases at the torch
exit to a nearly atmospheric pressure, the computed contours correspond to an under-
expanded atmospheric-pressure plasma jet.

Progress in Biomass and Bioenergy Production

72
The corresponding axial profiles of the Mach number, pressure, temperature and velocity
along the arc axis downstream from the nozzle orifice (the axial position 58.32 mm) for the
same run are presented in Fig. 6. Several successive wave crests and troughs along the axis
for each of the physical parameters is a typical feature of supersonic fluid flow. The
fluctuation of presented quantities is between 1.1-1.7 for the Mach number, 0.7-1.4 atm. for
the pressure, 7 200-10 000 m
⋅ s
-1
for the velocity and 18 000-23 500 K for the temperature. Fig. 5. Velocity, temperature, pressure and the Mach number contours in the outlet nozzle
and near-discharge regions for the 600 A arc discharge. Water mass flow rate is 0.363 g s

as in Figs. 1, 4. Since the ratio of the axial to the radial dimensions of the calcualtion domain
is ~ 24 the scaling of the radial and axial coordinates is not proportional to make the
contours inside the discharge region clearly visible. Argon flows axially into the domain,
whereas water evaporates in the radial direction from the “water vapor boundary”. Both the
results for 500 and 600 A exhibit supersonic under-expanded plasma flow regime but a
progression from weak to highly-pronounced shock diamonds structure at 600 A is obvious.
The maximum velocities are 7 200 m
⋅ s
-1
(500 A) and 9 400 m ⋅ s
-1
(600 A) near the axial
position of 60 mm. Further downstream the velocity amplitudes decrease due to viscosity
dissipation and due to the reduction of the difference between the jet static pressure and
back pressure.

Fig. 7. Temperature and velocity contours for a) 500 A and b) 600 A arcs, net emission
coefficients model. Water mass flow rates are 0.329 g
⋅ s
-1
(500 A) and 0.363 g⋅ s
-1
(600 A);
argon mass flow rate is 40 slm for both currents. Progression of a supersonic flow structure
at the outlet is clearly visible. Contour increments are 1 000 K for temperature and 500 m
⋅ s
-1