Experimental and Kinetic Modeling Study of Cyclohexane Pyrolysis

The pyrolysis of undiluted cyclohexane has been studied in a continuous flow tubular reactor at temperatures from 913 to 1073 K and inlet feed flow rates in the range 288–304 g·h–1 at 0.17 MPa reactor pressure with average reactor residence time of 0.5 s calculated based on the pressure in the reactor, the temperature profile along the reactor, and the molar flow rate along the reactor estimated by the logarithmic average of the inlet and outlet molar flows. The reactions lead to conversions between 2% and 95%. Forty-nine products were identified and quantified using two-dimensional gas chromatography equipped with thermal conductivity and flame ionization detectors. The products with molecular weights between those of hydrogen and naphthalene constitute more than 99 mass % of the total products. A kinetic mechanism composed exclusively of elementary step reactions with high pressure limit rate coefficients has been generated with the automatic network generation tool “Genesys”. The kinetic parameters for...