An experimental and chemical kinetic simulation study of the high-temperature pyrolysis of linear C1–C5 alcohols

Abstract

The high-temperature pyrolysis characteristics of C1–C5 linear alcohols, including methanol, ethanol, 1-propanol, 1-butanol, and 1-pentanol, systematically studied experimentally and the results interpreted using a detailed kinetic model. Specifically, a single-pulse shock tube coupled to a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) system and a gas chromatograph (GC) is used to conduct a comprehensive experimental study on the high-temperature pyrolysis of the five alcohols, at pressures of 5 and 10 bar, in the temperature range 1000–1800 K at 1% fuel diluted by argon. Qualitative and quantitative analyses are conducted on the reactant, intermediate, and product species involved to determine species distributions as a function of temperature. A detailed chemical kinetic mechanism, NUIGMech1.3, is used to simulate the experimental data under the working conditions. The simulation results are compared with the experimental results, and it is shown that the overall trends between experiments and model predictions are relatively ideal in the comparison of all product and reactant concentrations, even though there is still a phenomenon of inaccurate prediction. Reaction pathway analysis is then conducted on the five alcohols. The present work not only provides additional experimental data for alcohols, but also provides insights into the high-temperature pyrolysis characteristics of the five fuels, which will be valuable for further development and optimization of detailed kinetic mechanisms of these alcohols and promote their practical application.