Partial oxidation of JP8 in a distributed reactor

Abstract

Volume distributed reaction technique was applied to examine the partial oxidation behavior of JP8 with the goal to improve reformate quality. The reactor design was based on previously developed volume distributed combustion, but modified to foster unique reforming conditions. The reactor demonstrated almost colorless reaction zone even at a high equivalence ratio of Φ=3.0 (that is normally a soot formation regime), with no visible soot found on the walls of the reactor.A stable reaction zone was demonstrated at low temperatures of 764–863°C. Reformate concentration consisted of 8.68–9.92% hydrogen and 18.12–18.58% carbon monoxide, which is significantly higher than that available in the literature on partial oxidation at temperatures of 700–800°C (only 4.0–7.5% hydrogen and 5.7–17% carbon monoxide). Acetylene concentrations under distributed reaction regime were 20–23% lower than that in conventional flames. The results show that volume distributed reactions offer significant advantages to produce higher concentrations of hydrogen and carbon monoxide and very low amounts of acetylene that is a well-known precursor to soot formation.