Ethanol oxidation and its interaction with nitric oxide

An experimental and theoretical study of the oxidation of ethanol in absence and in the presence of NO has been performed. The experiments were conducted in an isothermal quartz flow reactor at atmospheric pressure in the 700-1500 K temperature range. The influence of the temperature, oxygen concentration, and presence of NO on the concentrations of ethanol, CO, CO2, and NO has been analyzed, A reaction mechanism based on the model of Glarborg et al.(1) for hydrocarbon/NO interactions, the mechanism for methanol oxidation(2), updated in relation to the ethanol reaction subset, mainly with reactions taken from Marinov(3), has been used for calculations. The results show that the oxidation regime of ethanol for different air excess conditions is very similar in the absence and presence of NO, even though differences can be seen. In general, as the stoichiometry becomes leaner, the oxidation of ethanol is produced at lower temperatures, with little differences between rich and close to stoichiometric conditions. The presence of NO results in higher differences of the oxidation regimes of ethanol, in the way that NO inhibits ethanol conversion for the richest conditions, while it promotes ethanol oxidation for very lean conditions. The experimental results are analyzed in terms of detailed chemistry and the main issues are discussed.