A high pressure oxidation study of di-n-propyl ether

Abstract

The oxidation of di-n-propyl-ether (DPE), was studied in a jet-stirred reactor. Fuel-lean, stoichiometric and fuel-rich mixtures (φ = 0.5–4) were oxidized at a constant fuel mole fraction of 1000 ppm, at temperatures ranging from 470 to 1160 K, at 10 atm, and constant residence time of 700 ms. The mole fraction profiles were obtained through sonic probe sampling and gas chromatography and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry analyses. As was the case in our previous studies on ethers (diethyl ether and di-n-butyl ether), the carbon neighboring the ether group was found to be the most favorable site for H-abstraction reactions and the chemistry of the corresponding fuel radical drives the overall reactivity. The fuel concentration profiles indicated strong low-temperature chemistry. A kinetic sub-mechanism is developed based on rules similar to those for the two symmetric ethers previously investigated (DEE and DBE). The proposed mechanism shows good performances in representing the present experimental data, nevertheless, more data such as atmospheric pressure speciation will be needed in order to better interpret the kinetic behavior of DPE.