METHYLAMINE OXIDATION IN A FLOW REACTOR - MECHANISM AND MODELING

The high-temperature oxidation chemistry of methylamine (CH3NH2) has b een investigated by elucidating the major reaction paths under flow re actor conditions. A comprehensive detailed chemical-kinetic mechanism is proposed, which is comprised of 350 elementary reactions and 65 rea ctive species. A set of pyrolysis and oxidation reactions of CH3NH2, c ombined with the literature H-C-O-N reaction chemistry, constitute the proposed mechanism. In addition, the reactions of H-abstraction from both the C- and N-atom centers of CH3NH2, have been incorporated into the mechanism. Good agreement between model predictions and experiment al data is obtained over fuel-to-oxygen equivalence ratios ranging fro m 0.1 to 1.7, for 600-1400 K temperature range, and for subatmospheric (0.01 atm) as well as for atmospheric flow conditions. A reaction pat h analysis was conducted using the integral averaged reaction rates, a nd the major reaction pathways were identified. A first-order sensitiv ity analysis for species CH3NH2, NO, and HCN was performed and the res ults are compared with the reaction-path analysis.