Investigation of critical equivalence ratio and chemical speciation in flames of ethylbenzene–ethanol blends

This work investigates five different one-dimensional, laminar, atmospheric pressure, premixed ethanol/ethylbenzene flames (0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 90% ethanol by weight) at their soot onset threshold (?_critical). Liquid ethanol/ethylbenzene mixtures were pre-vaporized in nitrogen, blended with an oxygen–nitrogen mixture and, upon ignition, burned in premixed one-dimensional flames at atmospheric pressure. The flames were controlled so that each was at its visual soot onset threshold, and all had similar temperature profiles (determined by thermocouples). Fixed gases, light volatile hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), and oxygenated aromatic hydrocarbons were directly sampled at three locations in each flame. The experimental results were compared with a detailed kinetic model, and the modeling results were used to perform a reaction flux analysis of key species. The critical equivalence ratio was observed to increase in a parabolic fashion as ethanol concentration increased in the fuel mixture. The experimental results showed increasing trends of methane, ethane, and ethylene with increasing concentrations of ethanol in the flames. Carbon monoxide was also seen to increase significantly with the increase of ethanol in the flame, which removes carbon from the PAH and soot formation pathways. The PAH and oxygenated aromatic hydrocarbon values were very similar in the 0%, 25% and 50% ethanol flames, but significantly lower in the 75% and 90% ethanol flames. These results were in general agreement with the model and were reflected by the model soot predictions. The model predicted similar soot profiles for the 0%, 25% and 50% ethanol flames, however it predicted significantly lower values in the 75% and 90% ethanol flames. The reaction flux analysis revealed benzyl to be a major contributor to single and double ring aromatics (i.e., benzene and naphthalene), which was identified in a similar role in nearly sooting or highly sooting ethylbenzene flames. The presence of this radical was significantly reduced as ethanol concentration was increased in the flames, and this effect in combination with the lower carbon to oxygen ratios and the enhanced formation of carbon monoxide, are likely what allowed higher equivalence ratios to be reached without forming soot.     

Investigating the role of methane on the growth of aromatic hydrocarbons and soot in fundamental combustion processes

Experimental results are presented on the effect of methane content in a non-aromatic fuel mixture on the formation of aromatic hydrocarbons and soot in various fundamental combustion configurations. The systems considered consist of a laminar flow reactor, a laminar co-flow diffusion flame burner, and a laminar, premixed flame burner, all of which operate at atmospheric pressure. In the flow reactor, the experiments are performed at 1430 K, constant C-atom flow rates, 98% nitrogen dilution, C/O ratio = 2, and with fuel mixtures consisting of ethylene and methane. The diffusion flames are performed with fuel mixtures of methane and ethylene diluted in nitrogen to maintain a constant adiabatic flame temperature. The premixed flame experiments are performed with n-heptane and methane mixtures at a C/O ratio = 0.67 with nitrogen-impoverished air. The results show the existence of synergistic chemical effects between methane and other alkanes in the production of aromatics, despite reduced acetylene concentrations. This effect is attributable to the ability of methane to enhance the production of methyl radicals that will then promote production channels of aromatics that rely on odd-carbon-numbered species. Benzene, naphthalene, and pyrene show the strongest sensitivity to the presence of added methane. This synergy on aromatics trickles down to soot via enhanced inception and surface growth rates by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon condensation, but the overall effects on soot volume-fraction are smaller due to a compensating reduction in surface growth from acetylene. These results are observed under the very fuel-rich environments existing in the flow reactor and diffusion flames. In the premixed flames, however, instabilities did not permit investigation of conditions with sufficiently high equivalence ratios to perturb the aromatic and soot-growth regions.     

The effects of molecular structure on soot formation II. Diffusion flames

Soot thresholds, in the form of flame heights and fuel mass consumption rates at the smoke points, have been measured in atmospheric pressure, laminar diffusion flames of 42 pure hydrocarbons using a wick-fed burner. The smoke point fuel consumption rates were converted into threshold soot indices, TSIs, and compared with fuel structural parameters and with previous data from the literature. Averaged TSI values are given for 103 fuels.Soot particle emission temperatures and line-of-sight averaged soot volume fractions were measured at half the total smoke point flame heights, the location at which the soot concentration maximizes. All of the soot emission temperatures were between 1450 and 1550K, with aromatic fuels exhibiting the highest temperatures. Maximum soot volume fractions ranged from 2 to 11 × 10⁻⁶, with aromatic fuels producing the highest total soot concentrations.     

A reaction mechanism for gasoline surrogate fuels for large polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

This work aims to develop a reaction mechanism for gasoline surrogate fuels (n-heptane, iso-octane and toluene) with an emphasis on the formation of large polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Starting from an existing base mechanism for gasoline surrogate fuels with the largest chemical species being pyrene (C₁₆H₁₀), this new mechanism is generated by adding PAH sub-mechanisms to account for the formation and growth of PAHs up to coronene (C₂₄H₁₂). The density functional theory (DFT) and the transition state theory (TST) have been adopted to evaluate the rate constants for several PAH reactions. The mechanism is validated in the premixed laminar flames of n-heptane, iso-octane, benzene and ethylene. The characteristics of PAH formation in the counterflow diffusion flames of iso-octane/toluene and n-heptane/toluene mixtures have also been tested for both the soot formation and soot formation/oxidation flame conditions. The predictions of the concentrations of large PAHs in the premixed flames having available experimental data are significantly improved with the new mechanism as compared to the base mechanism. The major pathways for the formation of large PAHs are identified. The test of the counterflow diffusion flames successfully predicts the PAH behavior exhibiting a synergistic effect observed experimentally for the mixture fuels, irrespective of the type of flame (soot formation flame or soot formation/oxidation flame). The reactions that lead to this synergistic effect in PAH formation are identified through the rate-of-production analysis.     

Soot precursor measurements in benzene and hexane diffusion flames

To clarify the mechanism of soot formation in diffusion flames of liquid fuels, measurements of soot and its precursors were carried out. Sooting diffusion flames formed by a small pool combustion equipment system were used for this purpose. Benzene and hexane were used as typical aromatic and paraffin fuels. A laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) method was used to obtain spatial distributions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which are considered as soot particles. Spatial distributions of soot in test flames were measured by a laser-induced incandescence (LII) method. Soot diameter was estimated from the temporal change of LII intensity. A region of transition from PAHs to soot was defined from the results of LIF and LII. Flame temperatures, PAH species, and soot diameters in this transition region were investigated for both benzene and hexane flames. The results show that though the flame structures of benzene and hexane were different, the temperature in the PAHs-soot transition region of the benzene flame was similar to that of the hexane flame. Furthermore, the relationship between the PAH concentrations measured by gas chromatography in both flames and the PAH distributions obtained from LIF are discussed. It was found that PAHs with smaller molecular mass, such as benzene and toluene, remained in both the PAHs-soot transition and sooting regions, and it is thought that molecules heavier than pyrene are the leading candidates for soot precursor formation.     

Reduction of PAH and soot in premixed ethylene-air flames by addition of ethanol

Results are presented from a combined experimental and modeling study undertaken to understand the pathways by which the addition of ethanol to fuel-rich ethylene flames causes reductions in PAH and soot. The experimental work was conducted in a flat-flame burner at equivalence ratios of 2.34 and 2.64. Ethanol was added to the ethylene at two levels corresponding to 5 and 10% oxygen by weight in the fuel. Soot was measured by laser-induced incandescence calibrated with light extinction, and aromatic species were measured using laser-induced fluorescence. Modeling was based on a 1-D premixed flame model and kinetic mechanisms available in the literature. The modeling work captures the trends in aromatic species with changes in equivalence ratio and oxygen concentration in the fuel. However, the soot predictions do not match the increases observed at the higher equivalence ratio. Analysis of the modeling results for the lower equivalence ratio shows that the addition of ethanol to the ethylene reduces the aromatic species mainly by reducing the amount of carbon that is available to form precursor species.     

The effect of strain rate on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) formation in acetylene diffusion flames

Acetylene is a ubiquitous combustion intermediate that is also believed to be the major precursor for aromatic, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), and soot formation in both hydrocarbon and halogenated hydrocarbon flames. However, in spite of its important role as a flame intermediate, the detailed chemical structures of acetylene diffusion flames have not been studied in the past. Here the detailed chemical structures of counterflow diffusion flames of acetylene at strain rates of 37.7 and 50.3 s⁻¹ are presented. Both flames possessed the same carbon density of 0.37 g/L corresponding to an acetylene mole fraction of 0.375 in argon on the fuel side, and an oxygen mole fraction of 0.22 in argon on the oxidizer side. Concentration profiles of a large number of major, minor, and trace species, including a wide spectrum of aromatics and PAH, have been determined by direct sampling from flames using a heated quartz microprobe coupled to an online gas chromatograph/mass selective detector (GC/MSD). Temperature profiles were made using a thermocouple and the rapid insertion technique. Although the major species concentrations were nearly the same in the two flames, the mole fraction profiles of trace combustion by-products were significantly lower in the higher-strain-rate flame, by nearly two orders of magnitude for PAH. These comparative results provide new information on the trace chemistries of acetylene flames and should be useful for the development and validation of detailed chemical kinetic mechanisms describing the formation of toxic by-products in the combustion of hydrocarbons and halogenated hydrocarbons.     

Soot formation with C1 and C2 fuels using an improved chemical mechanism for PAH growth

Recently, an improved chemical mechanism of PAH growth was developed and tested in soot computations for a laminar co-flow non-premixed ethylene–air diffusion flame. In the present work, the chemical mechanism was enhanced further to accommodate the PAH gas phase growth in methane, ethylene and ethane co-flow flames. The changes in the mechanism were tested on a methane/oxygen and two ethane/oxygen premixed flames to ensure no degradation in its application to C₂ fuels. The major soot precursors were predicted in a satisfactory matter. The robustness of the soot solution methodology was tested for different fuels by solving methane/air, ethane/air and ethylene/air co-flow laminar diffusion flames using a single solution algorithm for all three cases. The peak soot volume fractions, which varied by two orders of magnitude between fuels, were predicted within a factor of two for all flames. The computations were also able to reproduce the spatial distributions of soot and to explain the variation in soot formation pathways among the fuels. Despite a similarity in bulk properties of the flame, the soot particles in different flames exhibit significantly different growth modes. Ethylene/air flames tend to form soot earlier than methane/air flames and inception plays a bigger role in the latter.     

Kinetic modeling of counterflow diffusion flames of butadiene

A comprehensive, semi-detailed kinetic scheme was used to simulate the chemical structures of counterflow diffusion and fuel-rich premixed 1,3-butadiene flames, to better understand the formation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). The results showed that model predictions were in good agreement with the experiments for most of the species in both the flames. In the counterflow flames higher-molecular weight products are slightly over predicted. The pathways characterizing the pollutant formation are very different in the premixed and in the counterflow flames confirming or suggesting the need to verify and refine the detailed mechanisms tuned for premixed conditions when they are extrapolated and used in diffusion flames. Reaction paths analysis for PAH formation in the counterflow flame shows that both the HACA mechanism and the resonantly stabilized radicals are important for the growth of PAH. The kinetic model was unsuccessful in predicting the increased reactivity in O₂-doped diffusion flames, indicating the need for improved models and also the opportunity of new experiments of butadiene oxidation in the intermediate temperature region.     

Chemical species associated with the early stage of soot growth in a laminar premixed ethylene-oxygen-argon flame

The roles of aliphatic and aromatic chemical species in soot mass growth were studied in a burner-stabilized premixed ethylene-oxygen-argon flame at equivalence ratio ?=2.5. Temperature, soot size distribution, and volume fraction were measured as a function of distance from the burner surface. The chemical composition of the soot was determined using a novel aerosol mass spectrometric technique, photoionization aerosol mass spectrometry (PIAMS), spatially resolved as a function of height above the burner surface (HAB). At lower HABs, the soot chemical composition was dominated by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) containing 16 to 30 carbon atoms. These measurements confirm that during particle inception and initial growth, the increase in particle mass results predominantly from an increase in the amount of PAH mass. Somewhat unexpected, ions corresponding to saturated and/or unsaturated hydrocarbons in the soot increased substantially as HAB increased. At the late stage of soot mass growth, the masses of aliphatic and aromatic components are similar. These observations indicate that for the flame tested, aliphatic compounds make a notable contribution to soot mass growth. The large aliphatic contribution coincides with a liquidlike particle morphology observed by TEM.     

Structure of laminar sooting inverse diffusion flames

The flame structure of laminar inverse diffusion flames (IDFs) was studied to gain insight into soot formation and growth in underventilated combustion. Both ethylene-air and methane-air IDFs were examined, fuel flow rates were kept constant for all flames of each fuel type, and airflow rates were varied to observe the effect on flame structure and soot formation. Planar laser-induced fluorescence of hydroxyl radicals (OH PLIF) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH PLIF), planar laser-induced incandescence of soot (soot PLII), and thermocouple-determined gas temperatures were used to draw conclusions about flame structure and soot formation. Flickering, caused by buoyancy-induced vortices, was evident above and outside the flames. The distances between the OH, PAH, and soot zones were similar in IDFs and normal diffusion flames (NDFs), but the locations of those zones were inverted in IDFs relative to NDFs. Peak OH PLIF coincided with peak temperature and marked the flame front. Soot appeared outside the flame front, corresponding to temperatures around the minimum soot formation temperature of 1300 K. PAHs appeared outside the soot layer, with characteristic temperature depending on the wavelength detection band. PAHs and soot began to appear at a constant axial position for each fuel, independent of the rate of air flow. PAH formation either preceded or coincided with soot formation, indicating that PAHs are important components in soot formation. Soot growth continued for some time downstream of the flame, at temperatures below the inception temperature, probably through reaction with PAHs.     

A comprehensive experimental study of low-pressure premixed C3-oxygenated hydrocarbon flames with tunable synchrotron photoionization

Lean and rich premixed flames of three different C₃-oxygenated hydrocarbons (acetone, n-propanol, and i-propanol) at low pressure have been investigated with tunable synchrotron photoionization and molecular-beam mass spectrometry. Flame species, including isomeric intermediates, are unambiguously identified with measurements of photoionization efficiency spectra by scanning the photon energy. Mole fraction profiles of most observed species are measured by scanning the burner position at selected photon energies near ionization thresholds, and the flame temperature profiles are recorded using a Pt/Pt-13%Rh thermocouple. Compared with previous studies, some new flame species, e.g., vinyl, propargyl, allyl, ethenol, methyl ketene, propenols, ethyl ketene, methyl ethyl ketone, butenols, and 1,3,5-hexatriyne, are detected in this work, which will extend our knowledge of the intermediate pools of oxygenated hydrocarbon combustion. On the other hand, comparisons among chemical structures of these flames have been performed, based on the comprehensive experimental data. It is concluded that different structural features of fuel molecules will cause a lot of variation in intermediate pools, isomeric compositions, and formation channels of flame species, especially for the oxygenated intermediates. Combined with previous research on hydrocarbon flames, analyses of pollutant emissions and soot formation are presented. It is consistent with previous studies that the oxygenated fuels have reduced sooting tendencies and potential emissions of toxic oxygenated by-products.     

Detailed numerical modeling of PAH formation and growth in non-premixed ethylene and ethane flames

A chemical kinetic mechanism for C₁ and C₂ fuel combustion and PAH growth, previously validated for laminar premixed combustion, has now been modified and applied to opposed flow diffusion flames. Some modifications and extensions have been made to the reaction scheme to take into account recent kinetic investigations, and to reduce the stiffness of the reaction model. Updates have been made to the cyclopentadienyl reactions, indene formation reactions, and aromatic oxidation and decomposition reactions. Reverse reaction rate parameters have been revised to account for numerical stiffness. Opposed flow diffusion flame simulation data for ethylene and ethane flames with the present mechanism are compared to data computed using two other mechanisms from the literature and to experimental data. Whereas the fuel oxidation chemistry in all three mechanisms are essentially the same, the PAH growth pathways vary considerably. The current mechanism considers a detailed set of PAH growth routes, and includes hydrogen atom migration, possible free radical addition schemes, methyl substitution/acetylene addition pathways, cyclopentadienyl moiety in aromatic ring formation, and numerous reactions between aromatic radicals and molecules. It is shown that while bulk flame properties and major species profiles are the same for the three mechanisms, the enhanced PAH growth routes in the present mechanism are necessary to numerically predict the correct order of magnitude of PAHs that were measured in the experimental studies. In particular, predicting concentrations of naphthalene, phenanthrene, and pyrene, to within the correct order of magnitude with the present mechanism show a significant improvement over predictions obtained using mechanisms in the literature. Sensitivity and production rate analyses show that this improvement is attributable to the enhanced PAH growth pathways and updated reaction rates in the present mechanism. The overreaching goal of this research is to generate and fully validate a detailed chemical kinetic mechanism, with as few fitted rates as possible, that can be applied to premixed or diffusion systems, and used with any type of soot model. To that end, in recently published works, the present mechanism has been used to simulate premixed flames, while coupled to a method of moments to determine soot formation, and to simulate diffusion flames, while coupled to a sectional representation for soot formation. The present work extends the validation of the mechanism by applying it to counterflow diffusion flames, for which measurements of large PAH molecules are uniquely available. The validation of PAH growth predictions are of key interest to soot modeling studies as soot inception from PAH combination and PAH condensation are often major constituents of soot production.     

利用同步辐射研究乙醇和二甲醚低压预混火焰成分

在低压预混层流火焰条件下,利用同步辐射光电离技术,结合分子束质谱法,对当量比为1的二甲醚和乙醇火焰进行了研究.通过扫描火焰中光子的能量,描绘出PIE曲线,探测到了这两种燃料燃烧过程中包含的同分异构中间产物;同时,通过扫描燃烧炉不同位置的光子能量谱,获得了火焰中重要物质的摩尔分数.比较两者的火焰结构,结果表明,这一对同分异构的燃料燃烧时,由于分子结构不同,它们的中间产物和相同中间产物的摩尔分数有很大差异,含氧的中间产物摩尔分数有较大差异.另外,在二甲醚火焰中还发现了甲乙醚,拓宽了对含氧碳氢化合物燃烧的认识.     

Experimental and modeling study of lean premixed atmospheric-pressure propane/O2/N2 flames

A better knowledge of the combustion chemistry in very lean flames is required to improve flame stability and control the presence of oxygenated species as final products. In this work, the chemical structure of lean premixed propane-oxygen-nitrogen flames stabilized on a flat flame burner at atmospheric pressure was determined experimentally. The species mole fraction profiles were also computed by the Premix code (Chemkin II version) and three recently proposed mechanisms. Globally, the agreement between measured and computed mole fractions profiles is similar, despite large differences in the number of reactions in each mechanism. Pathways analyses show that only weak variations are observed in the relative importance of the main oxidation routes when the equivalence ratio is decreased from 0.9 to 0.5.     

生物柴油同分异构替代燃料丁酸甲酯和丙酸乙酯预混燃烧对比研究

在CO2/O2/Ar气氛下对生物柴油两种同分异构替代燃料丁酸甲酯和丙酸乙酯的预混燃烧（当量比为0.8）进行了对比研究,重点分析了生物柴油替代燃料的同分异构化对燃烧主要产物、稳定中间产物以及自由基的影响,同时揭示CO2对两种同分异构替代燃料燃烧的化学作用,给出了潜在典型污染物的生成趋势和规律。结果表明,CO2的加入对两种燃料中重要的烟黑前驱物C2H2和C3H3具有抑制作用。CO2的稀释和热作用对C2H2生成的抑制作用在丙酸乙酯火焰中更加显著,而对C3H3的抑制作用在丁酸甲酯火焰中更加明显,并且CO2的化学作用可进一步加强对两种火焰中C2H2和C3H3生成的抑制。同时,CO2的存在可有效降低两种燃料非常规污染物醛酮类产物的浓度,其中CH2O和CH3CHO的浓度在丙酸乙酯火焰中的减小更为显著。两种火焰中抑制CH2O生成的主要作用是CO2的稀释和热作用,而CO2的化学作用则是抑制CH3CHO生成的主导作用。由产物消耗速率分析得知,对丁酸甲酯消耗影响最大的化学反应是脱氢反应MB+H=H2+MB2J,而对丙酸乙酯消耗影响最大的则是分解反应EP=C2H5COOH+C2H4。     

Measurement and analysis of soot inception limits of oxygen-enriched coflow flames

This study explores the criteria for soot inception in oxygen-enriched laminar coflow flames. In these experiments we select an axial height in the coflow flame at which to identify the sooting limit. The sooting limit is obtained by varying the amount of inert until luminous soot first appears at this predefined height. The sooting limit flame temperature is found to increase linearly with stoichiometric mixture fraction, regardless of fuel type. To understand these results, the relationships between flame structure, temperature, and local C/O ratio is explored through the use of conserved scalar relationships. Comparison of these relationships with the experimental data indicates that the local C/O ratio is a controlling parameter for soot inception in diffusion flames (analogous to the global C/O ratio in premixed flames). Analysis of experimental results suggests that soot inception occurs when the local C/O ratio is above a critical value. The values for critical C/O ratios obtained from the analysis of experiments using several fuels are similar in magnitude to the corresponding C/O ratios for premixed flames. In addition, temperatures and PAH fluorescence were measured to identify regions in these flames most conducive to particle inception. Results indicate that the peak PAH concentration lies along a critical iso-C/O contour, which supports a theory that soot particles first appear along this critical contour, given sufficient temperature.     

Effect of hydrogen addition on early flame growth of lean burn natural gas–air mixtures

Effect of hydrogen addition on early flame growth of lean burn natural gas–air mixtures was investigated experimentally and numerically. The flame propagating photos of premixed combustion and direct-injection combustion was obtained by using a constant volume vessel and schlieren photographic technique. The pressure derived initial combustion durations were also obtained at different hydrogen fractions (from 0% to 40% in volumetric fraction) at overall equivalence ratio of 0.6 and 0.8, respectively. The laminar premixed methane–hydrogen–air flames were calculated with PREMIX code of CHEMKIN II program with GRI 3.0 mechanism. The results showed that the initial combustion process of lean burn natural gas–air mixtures was enhanced as hydrogen is added to natural gas in the case of both premixed combustion and direct-injection combustion. This phenomenon is more obvious at leaner mixture condition near the lean limit of natural gas. The mole fractions of OH and O are increased with the increase of hydrogen fraction and the position of maximum OH and O mole fractions move closing to the unburned mixture side. A monotonic correlation between initial combustion duration with the reciprocal maximum OH mole fraction in the flames is observed. The enhancement of the spark ignition of natural gas with hydrogen addition can be ascribed to the increase of OH and O mole fractions in the flames.     

Hydrogen addition to acetylene-air laminar diffusion flames: Studies on soot formation under different flow arrangements

Axisymmetric co-flowing acetylene/air laminar diffusion flames have been experimentally investigated to study the effect of hydrogen addition on soot formation and soot morphology. An acetylene-hydrogen jet burning in co-flowing air at atmospheric pressure has been studied under different flow arrangements, i.e., premixed and with separate addition of acetylene and hydrogen. Thermophoretic sampling and analysis by transmission electron microscopy are employed for soot diagnostics. Soot microstructure, primary particle size, soot volume fraction, and fractal geometry results are reported. The effect of hydrogen addition on the temperature field is moderate (maximum increase ∼100 K), the effect being greater when hydrogen is premixed with acetylene. Soot volume fraction decreases with hydrogen addition. A shift was noted in the soot volume fraction peak with change in the Reynolds and Froude numbers at the burner exit. The primary soot particle diameter is in the range of 20-35 nm. Soot particles are larger in size close to the burner for the pure acetylene flame. A reverse trend is observed with hydrogen addition. The fractal dimension of the soot aggregates is about 1.7-1.8. It is unaffected by hydrogen addition and location in the flame. Soot aggregate size tends to decrease with hydrogen addition. The results of the present study on the effect of hydrogen addition on soot volume fraction and mean primary particle size are in good correlation with the results of other investigators for ethylene-, propane-, and butane-air flames, which have been described with regard to the HACA mechanism of soot nucleation and growth and enhanced soot oxidation in fuel-rich flames by increased OH radical concentration.