Experimental study of the oxidation of large surrogates for diesel and biodiesel fuels

The experimental study of the oxidation of two blend surrogates for diesel and biodiesel fuels, n-decane/n-hexadecane and n-decane/methyl palmitate (74/26 mol/mol), has been performed in a jet-stirred reactor over a wide range of temperatures covering both low, and high-temperature regions (550–1100 K), at a residence time of 1.5 s, at quasi atmospheric pressure with high dilution in helium (hydrocarbon inlet mole fraction of 0.002) and at stoichiometric conditions.Numerous reaction products have been identified and quantified. At low and intermediate temperatures (less than 1000 K), the formation of oxygenated species such as cyclic ethers, aldehydes and ketones has been observed for n-decane, n-hexadecane, and methyl palmitate. At higher temperature, the formation of these species was not observed any more, and small amounts of unsaturated species (olefins and unsaturated methyl esters) have been detected.Results obtained with methyl palmitate and n-hexadecane have been compared in order to highlight similarities and differences between large n-alkanes and methyl esters.