A study of low-pressure premixed ethylene flame with and without ethanol using photoionization mass spectrometry and modeling

In order to investigate the influence of ethanol on the process of forming precursors of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) and soot in ethylene flame, the measurement results and the 1 D numerical modeling results of the concentration profiles of stable species, as well as of radicals in premixed burner-stabilized flame of the fuel-rich mixture of ethylene/ethanol/oxygen/argon at the pressure of 30 torr are presented and compared. Rich ethylene flame was chosen as the base flame. The measurements were made using molecular beam mass spectrometry with tunable synchrotron photoionization. The concentration of benzene and propargyl radicals, the main PAH precursors, was found to be lower in the flame of the ethylene/ethanol fuel mixture than in the pure ethylene flame. The main reaction pathways leading to benzene formation in ethylene flame containing ethanol and without it were analyzed. (C) 2010 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.