Accession Number:

ADA564573

Title:

Supercritical Fuel Pyrolysis

Descriptive Note:

Final technical rept. 1 Dec 2006-30 Nov 2009

Corporate Author:

LOUISIANA STATE UNIV BATON ROUGE DEPT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Personal Author(s):

• Wornat, M. J.

Report Date:

2010-05-30

Pagination or Media Count:

88.0

Abstract:

Supercritical pyrolysis experiments were conducted with the two-ring model fuel 1-methylnaphthalene at 585 C and pressures of 50 to 110 atm and at 80 atm and temperatures of 550 to 600 C. Quantification of the product polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAH by high-pressure liquid chromatography HPLC showed linear increases in PAH yields with increasing pressure with increasing temperature, rates of PAH yield increases rose steadily. Higher-temperature supercritical pyrolysis experiments with toluene showed that 700 C, the highest temperature of the reactor, was not hot enough to break aromatic C-C bonds in the supercritical fuel pyrolysis environment. Supercritical pyrolysis experiments were conducted with the model alkane fuel n-decane at 570 C and pressures of 40 to 100 atm and at 100 atm and temperatures of 530 to 570 C. Application of a newly developed normal-phase HPLC fractionation reversed-phase HPLC analysis technique led to the identification of 276 individual product PAH of up to 9 aromatic rings many of which were first-time identifications as products of n-decane. Quantification of the PAH products showed exponential increases in PAH yields with increasing pressure or increasing temperature. Yields increased the most sharply for the highest-ring-number PAH, immediate precursors to carbonaceous solids.

Descriptors:

• *AVIATION FUELS
• *HYPERSONIC AIRCRAFT
• *PYROLYSIS
• AROMATIC COMPOUNDS
• AROMATIC HYDROCARBONS
• JET ENGINE FUELS
• LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY
• REACTION KINETICS
• SUPERCRITICAL FLOW
• TOLUENES

Subject Categories:

• Organic Chemistry
• Physical Chemistry
• Fuels

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE