Pyrolysis and oxidation of a light naphtha fuel and its surrogate blend

Abstract

An experimental and kinetic study on pyrolysis and oxidation of a real light naphtha fuel and its surrogate blend were conducted. Based on the chemical functional group method, a three-component surrogate blend for the target naphtha was formulated, which contains 64.2 mol% iso-pentane, 21.0 mol% n-hexane, and 14.8 mol% methylcyclopentane. The pyrolysis and oxidation characteristics of the target naphtha fuel and the formulated surrogate were compared using a jet-stirred reactor (JSR) at the equivalence ratios of 0.5, 1.0, 2.0 and ∞, across the temperature range from 700 to 1100 K, and at atmospheric pressure. Mole fractions of the three components, oxygen, hydrogen, CO, CO2, and C1-C4 hydrocarbons were measured by gas chromatograph. Similar global reactivities between the two test fuels were observed in both pyrolysis and oxidation experiments. In addition, a detailed chemical kinetic model was constructed and validated against the species mole fraction profiles measured in JSR experiments. The present model can provide reasonable prediction of the experimental measurements of the species mole fractions in pyrolysis and oxidation of the surrogate blend. Uncertainty-weighted sensitivity analysis indicates that the model prediction of the consumption of the three components of the surrogate blend in pyrolysis are dominated by the rate constants for H-abstraction reactions of isopentane, n-hexane, methylcyclopentane and propene by H atom and methyl radical. The model predictions of the oxidation reactivity of the surrogate blend mainly depend on H-abstraction reactions from the three surrogate components by HO2 radical at 800 K, while the H-abstraction reactions from aldehyde and alkene intermediates become more significant at 950 K.