Reactivity and Physicochemical Properties of the Soot Produced in the Pyrolysis of 2,5-Dimethylfuran and 2-Methylfuran

Alkylated furan derivatives, such as 2,5-dimethylfuran (2,5-DMF) and 2-methylfuran (2-MF), have shown, at laboratory scale, a relatively high tendency to form soot. However, soot emissions from diesel engines are lower when diesel/2,5-DMF and diesel/2-MF blends are used. This could indicate that the soot produced in the conversion of these compounds has high reactivity toward some gases present within the combustion chamber, reducing soot emissions in the exhaust gas. In this context, a study on the reactivity and the characterization of the soot generated in the pyrolysis of 2,5-DMF and 2-MF, under different experimental conditions, was performed in an effort to increase the understanding of the reactivity and physicochemical properties of the soot originating in the conversion of these furan derivatives. The soot samples analyzed were obtained in previous works using different concentrations of the alkylated furan derivatives (5000, 7500, and 15 000 ppm of 2,5-DMF, and 9000 and 18 000 ppm of 2-MF) and at different temperatures (1275, 1375, and 1475 K). The reactivity experiments were performed at 1275 K with 500 ppm of O-2 and 2000 ppm of NO in a tubular quartz flow reactor. Different instrumental analysis techniques were employed to characterize the soot samples and to try to link the soot reactivity with its physicochemical properties. The dependence of soot reactivity and properties with soot formation conditions, namely, temperature and inlet fuel concentration, is studied.