Synthetic-fuel combustion: pollutant formation. Soot-initiation mechanisms in burning aromatics. Fourth quarterly report, 1 July 1981-30 September 1981
Although considerable progress has been made in recent years in understanding the kinetics of the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels, relatively little attention has been focussed upon aromatic fuels of the types commonly found in coal liquids. Of particular interest are the pyrolysis rates, free radical kinetics, and soot and NO/sub x/ formation mechanisms for a variety of aromatic families such as those of benzene, anisole, phenol, and nitrogen heterocyclics. These processes can be studied readily in shock tubes, where combustion temperatures can be attained almost instantly without wall effects and under well-controlled flow conditions. Most of the previous work has concerned fuel disappearance rates and/or soot formation in pyrolysis of the simpler fuels, benzene and toluene. Many of the sooting experiments have used laser beam attenuation to determine soot yields, a technique which is subject to ambiguities in both the effective absorption coefficient and the identity of the absorbing species. We are performing experiments in incident shock waves, using an array of optical absorption and emission diagnostics in the ultraviolet, visible, and infrared. Preliminary data for pyrolysis of toluene and pyridine (1400 to 2500 K) indicate that soot formation is minimal for pyridine and proceeds rapidly for toluene, with evidence of a bimodal mechanism above 2000 K. Comparison of ultraviolet and visible attenuation signals indicates that the mean size of the soot particles causing the attenuation may be considerably larger than assumed by previous workers, thus requiring the use of complete Mie theory rather than the Rayleigh limit in the interpretation of the data.
- Research Organization:
- Physical Sciences, Inc., Woburn, MA (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC22-80PC30292
- OSTI ID:
- 5956145
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/PC/30292-4; PSI-TR-291; ON: DE82002566
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Synthetic fuel combustion: pollutant formation. Soot initiation mechanisms in burning aromatics. First quarterly report, 19 September-31 December 1980
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37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
400800* -- Combustion
Pyrolysis
& High-Temperature Chemistry
AROMATICS
ATTENUATION
AZINES
CHEMICAL REACTION YIELD
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
DECOMPOSITION
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
HETEROCYCLIC COMPOUNDS
HYDROCARBONS
INFRARED RADIATION
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
PYRIDINE
PYRIDINES
PYROLYSIS
RADIATIONS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SHOCK WAVES
SOOT
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
TOLUENE
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
VERY HIGH TEMPERATURE
VISIBLE RADIATION
YIELDS