Modeling high pressure ethane oxidation and pyrolysis

A previously developed detailed chemical kinetic model for ethane oxidation and pyrolysis has been extended by considering the impact of much higher pressures on the chemically- and thermally-activated reactions in the mechanism. The resulting mechanism is now compared to data at much higher pressures. These data include both ethane oxidation and pyrolysis shock tube experiments up to pressures of 986 atm as well as autoignition and ethane dissociation data near 10 atm. The temperature and pressure dependencies of the rate coefficients in the model are represented by Chebyshev polynomials. This model, with no adjustments, describes the varied experimental data very well. A first order sensitivity analysis identified the most important reactions in each of the kinetic regimes. These results, coupled with the earlier validation studies at lower pressures, suggest this model is broadly applicable to analysis of ethane pyrolysis and oxidation over very wide temperature and pressure ranges.