A pulsed plasma pyrolysis reactor with an efficient control system was designed for fuel oil processing. Non-thermal plasma pyrolysis was carried out in the liquid phase at low temperatures (not higher than 100 °C) in a 300 cm³ reactor without additional reagents or catalysts. The main process parameters and characteristics of non-thermal plasma fuel oil products were investigated within the DC source voltage range of 300–700 V. An increase in the energy of pulsed discharges led to an increase in the productivity of the plasma pyrolysis process and the yield of hydrogen but reduced the yield of acetylene and ethylene. The resulting gas consisted predominantly of hydrogen (46.5–50.0 mol%), acetylene (28.8–34.3 mol%), ethylene (7.6–8.6 mol%), methane (4.2–6.2 mol%), and C3–C5 hydrocarbons. The solid-phase products were in the form of disordered graphite and multilayer nanotubes.

The non-thermal plasma pyrolysis of fuel oil, under the action of low-voltage electric discharges in the liquid phase, has made it possible to develop a new process to obtain valuable petrochemical products. In this study, the main parameters, including pulse energy and the time of impact on the non-thermal plasma pyrolysis process, are studied. The main components of the obtained gaseous products are hydrogen (27.6–49.6 mol%), acetylene (33.6–49.1 mol%), ethylene (6.9–12.1 mol%), methane (3.9–9.1 mol%), and hydrocarbons C3-C5 (3.8–9.3 mol%). Increasing the capacity of electric discharges leads to an increase in the content of acetylene in the gas phase to 49.1 mol% and a decrease in energy costs for the production of gaseous products.

Pathways of chlorobenzene transformation in the liquid phase under low-voltage electron-induced discharges at an average temperature of 30°C have been studied. It has been found that the product composition of the chlorobenzene reaction in the case of copper electrodes depends on the voltage on the electrodes: benzene and phenylacetylene are produced at 30 V; benzene, phenylacetylene, naphthalene, and anthracene, at 40 V; and benzene, phenylacetylene, naphthalene, vinylnaphthalene, and chlorobiphenyl, at 60 V. In addition to the liquid products, acetylene, carbon black, and copper chlorides are formed during discharges.

This paper describes the scheme and algorithm for controlling a laboratory setup that result in low uncertainty and high convergence with respect to the characteristics of electric discharges under the conditions of variable parameters of a reaction medium. The article presents current and voltage oscillograms when processing hydrocarbon raw materials. Methods for calculating the energy impact of electrical discharge are described. A comparison is made between the parameters of electric discharge with current pulse limitations and those without current pulse duration limitations. The proposed approach to controlling the characteristics of electric discharges provides the same parameters of nonthermal nonequilibrium plasma and, as a result, a regular composition of the products of plasma pyrolysis of hydrocarbon raw materials.