A comprehensive kinetic study on the speciation from propylene and propyne pyrolysis in a single-pulse shock tube

Abstract This work is centered on the speciation from propylene and propyne pyrolysis by means of shock tube experiments and detailed kinetic modeling. A wealth of intermediates and products, covering small acyclic hydrocarbons up to four-ring aromatics, are probed from the C3 fuels pyrolysis at a nominal pressure of 20 bar over 1050–1650 K. With updates in reactions involving C3 species, our on-going polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) formation kinetic model can well predict the measurements obtained in the current work as well as relevant literature data. Propyne exhibits a unique two-stage decomposition profile, as the characteristic isomerization to allene dominates in its consumption at moderate temperatures below 1300 K. Overall, propylene pyrolysis results in more diverse small hydrocarbons, but much lower contents of aromatics, in comparison to propyne pyrolysis. In both studied cases, the formation of benzene is dependent upon the propargyl recombination, and since propyne decomposition induces a more rapid and more plentiful propargyl production, benzene mole fractions are much higher in propyne pyrolysis. In both cases, naphthalene is observed as the most abundant PAH species, followed by acenaphthalene. Modeling analyses indicate that similar reaction pathways are responsible for the PAH formation in propylene and propyne pyrolysis. Indene is formed from the interactions between benzene/phenyl and C3 species, through its non-PAH isomers as intermediates. The subsequent reactions of indenyl radical with methyl and propargyl are essential pathways leading to naphthalene and acenaphthalene, respectively. Naphthyl radical further participates in the formation of different larger PAHs. The methylene-substituted cyclopenta-ring species are deemed as important precursors of their aromatic isomers, as is noted from the fulvene-to-benzene, benzofulvene-to-naphthalene and 9-methylene-fluorene-to-phenanthrene conversions.