To better understand the chemistry of the combustion of ethanol, the structure of five low pressure laminar premixed flames has been investigated: a pure methane flame (Φ = 1), three pure ethanol flames (Φ = 0.7, 1.0, and 1.3), and an ethanol/methane mixture flame (Φ = 1). The flames have been stabilized on a burner at a pressure of 6.7 kPa using argon as a dilutant, with a gas velocity at the burner of 64.3 cm/s at 333 K. The results consist of mole fraction profiles of 20 species measured as a function of the height above the burner by probe sampling followed by online gas chromatography analyses. A mechanism for the oxidation of ethanol was proposed. The reactions of ethanol and acetaldehyde were updated and include recent theoretical calculations while that of ethenol, dimethyl ether, acetone, and propanal were added in the mechanism. This mechanism was also tested against experimental results available in the literature for laminar burning velocities and laminar premixed flame where ethenol was detected. The main reaction pathways of consumption of ethanol are analyzed. The effect of the branching ratios of reaction C2H5OH + OH → Products + H2O is also discussed.
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