Performance of methanol kinetic mechanisms at oxy-fuel conditions

Methanol premixed flames were studied under oxy-fuel conditions for the first time. Laminar burning velocities were measured with the heat flux method at atmospheric pressure for unburnt gas temperatures of 308-358 K within a stoichiometric range of phi = 0.8-1.5. A linear relationship between temperature and laminar burning velocity on a log-log scale was observed. The experimental results are discussed by comparison to modeling results from three kinetic mechanisms. All models gave an overprediction of the laminar burning velocity. It was demonstrated that implementation of recently advised rate constants for reactions of methanol with O-2, HO2, H and OH, together with modification of the third-body efficiency for H2O in the decomposition of the formyl radical, significantly improves model performance both for methanol combustion in air and at oxy-fuel conditions. (C) 2014 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.