A WIDE-RANGE MODELING STUDY OF METHANE OXIDATION

Goal of this article is to present a detailed kinetic scheme able to d escribe a large variety of macroscopic experimental data related to me thane pyrolysis, partial oxidation and combustion. Due to the importan ce of C2 chemistry, detailed comparisons for pyrolysis and oxidation o f ethane, ethylene and acetaldehyde are also reported. The main effort has been put in collecting and unifying these experimental knowledge into a single and comprehensive kinetic scheme. The result of this ana lysis is to enlarge the simulation capabilities of a single and genera l kinetic scheme; such a model, expensive in terms of species and reac tions (more than 70 real and 'equivalent' species involved in more tha n 1600 elementary reactions), maintains the typical advantages of mech anistic kinetic models. Therefore, once the submechanisms of the simpl er species are validated and tested on the basis of a large set of exp erimental data, it becomes feasible to analyze the oxidation and decom position of larger hydrocarbon fuels with only a very limited set of n ew primary elementary reactions.