Pathways of liquefied petroleum gas pyrolysis in hydrogen plasma: A density functional theory study

A density functional theory (DFT) study has been conducted in this work to investigate the pyrolysis pathways of propane and n-butane, which are the main components of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), for better understanding the pyrolysis behavior of LPG in hydrogen thermal plasma. Over 60 possible reactions are considered. The reaction enthalpies and activation energies of these reactions are calculated and analyzed with a Gaussian method of B3LYP and basic set of 6-31G (d,p). A most possible reaction pathway is brought up. According to this reaction pathway, the main products of LPG pyrolysis are acetylene, ethylene, methane, ethane and extra hydrogen. Acetylene mainly comes from the pyrolysis of propylene and ethylene, and hydrogen abstraction reactions are the main source of extra hydrogen gas. Active H· radicals are found to play a very important role in many reactions, and they can remarkably lower the energies needed for reactions.