RÉSUMÉ

This paper presents a part of international project results, which aims at impoving the environmental performance of the classic internal combustion engine with spark ignition by admixing on-board generated syngas into the engine's working mixture. Different kinds of fuel are considered, but here we present the results on LPG only. The conversion of propane−butane (LPG) mixture with air into syngas via a high-voltage atmospheric pressure discharge process has been investigated experimentally and theoretically. The process characteristics were measured at two gas flow rates through the discharge, namely 10 and 14.75 L/min and the equivalence ratio of the initial mixture was varied in the range 1.7−3.0, while the discharge energy input was between 600 and 1300 W. A conversion degree of about 77% was achieved for H₂, which corresponds to a 23% H₂ concentration in the conversion products. A numerical model of the process, which assumes that the role of the discharge in the conversion is purely thermal in nature, has been developed. The developed model has outstanding agreement with the experimental results obtained from a plasma discharge system.