Revisit the benzene oxidation at elevated pressure

Abstract

The benzene (A1) oxidation was examined in a jet-stirred reactor (JSR) within the temperature range of 880–1010 K at 12.0 atm under both fuel lean (Φ = 0.5) and rich (Φ = 3.0) conditions. Eighteen intermediates and products were identified and quantified by gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC–MS). A kinetic model comprising 280 species and 1734 reactions was developed and validated against the experimental data to investigate the benzene reactions occurring at high pressure and low temperature. According to the sensitivity analysis, A1 + OH = A1- + H2O is the most promoting reaction for fuel consumption, while A1OH + O2 = A1O + HO2 and A1OH + OH = A1O + H2O exhibited the most inhibiting effects. HO2 radicals play an important role in the initial reaction temperature of A1 high-pressure oxidation, where the reaction rate of A1OH + O2 = A1O + HO2 is particularly critical. In comparison to previous works on A1 oxidation, oxygenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (OPAHs) benzofuran (C8H6O) and dibenzofuran (C12H8O) were newly measured and analyzed in this work. As one of the most important OPAHs species, the consumption pathway of C8H6O was updated to better describe the high-pressure oxidation. The C8H6O would potentially compete with A1 for molecular oxygen via the pathway A1 → A1O → C8H6O → decomposition products, and the process of decomposition enhances the oxygen depletion. Compared with previous oxidation studies at atmospheric pressure, the A1 initial reaction temperature shifted from 1000 to 950 K, and the temperature window of fuel conversion sharply reduced from 300 K to 70 K. Additionally, the model was effectively applied to predict the oxidation of A1 in a Jet-Stirred Reactor (JSR) over a wide range of pressures, from 0.46 to 12.0 atm. Furthermore, the developed model was compared with the laminar flame velocities (LBVs, ranging from 1.0 - 10.0 atm) and the ignition delay times (IDTs, ranging from 2.4 – 9.0 atm) data in the literature, and satisfactory agreement was obtained across a broad pressure range. The newly reported data and kinetic model provide helpful in further understanding the combustion mechanisms of aromatic hydrocarbon fuels.