Modeling of thermal cracking kinetics—II: Cracking of iso-butane, of n-butane and of mixtures ethane—propane— n-butane

Abstract

Molecular reaction schemes for the pyrolysis of isobutane and normal butane were derived from experimental products distributions, radical mechanisms and thermodynamic principles. The associated parameters were estimated by non linear regression using a Marquardt routine for the minimization of a suitable objective function. The discrimination between the rival models was based on physical criteria, statistical tests and the closeness of fit. The prediction of the product distributions of the cracking of binary mixtures of normal and isobutane, n-butane and ethane, n-butane and propane and the ternary mixtures of n-butane, propane and ethane was based upon a model obtained from the superposition of the models for single component cracking.