The thermal decomposition of ethane

Abstract Ethane pyrolysis chemistry plays a critical role in the combustion behavior of natural gas and gives insight into the decomposition patterns of larger alkanes. In this work, ethane pyrolysis was studied behind reflected shock waves with a convex optimization-based laser absorption speciation technique. Species time-histories of ethane, ethylene, methane, and acetylene were quantified in the decomposition of 1% and 2% ethane in argon at conditions between 1178 and 1527 K and 3.1–4.2 atm. Six laser wavelengths, simultaneously probing sensitive regions of each species’ spectra, enabled the sensitive detection of all major pyrolysis products and confirmed the negligible formation of other species. The time-history data presented in this work paint a coherent picture of ethane decomposition that motivates specific refinements to state-of-the-art detailed kinetic models.