THE RELEVANCE OF THERMOKINETIC INTERACTIONS AND NUMERICAL MODELING TOTHE HOMOGENEOUS PARTIAL OXIDATION OF METHANE

Both a two-dimensional thermokinetic model and a detailed multidimensi onal one, only tractable by numerical computation, are applied to the high-pressure, low-temperature, noncatalytic, direct partial oxidation of methane in a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR). It is shown t hat all the phenomena encountered experimentally in this system so far can be accounted for qualitatively by the two-dimensional model and s emiquantitatively by the numerical approach. These phenomena include t he parametric dependencies of methanol selectivity and yield and the o ccurrence and significance of hysteresis, bifurcation, oscillation, an d extinction, of the direct partial oxidation reaction.