Catalytic ignition of dry carbon monoxide in a stagnation-point flow

The catalytic ignition of dry carbon monoxide and air in a planar stagnatio n-point flow over a platinum foil is studied in this paper. The heterogeneo us reaction mechanism is modeled with the dissociative adsorption of the mo lecular oxygen and the nondissociative adsorption of CO, together with a su rface reaction of the Langmiur-Hinshelwood type and the desorption reaction of the adsorbed product, CO2(s). The critical conditions for the catalytic ignition are deduced using high activation energy asymptotics of the desor ption kinetics of the most efficient adsorbed reactant, CO(s). When using t he appropriate activation energy of the desorption reaction of CO(s), the i gnition temperature obtained in closed form compares very well with experim ental results. (C) 1999 by The Combustion Institute.